GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 

VOL.  I 


The  following  works  by  Sir  Harry  Johnston  treat- 
ing of  other  parts  of  Africa  outside  the  Congo  basin, 
give  additional  information  on  questions  of  Ethnology, 
Languages,  History,  Botany,  and  Zoology  dealt  w-ith 
in  George  Grenfell  and  the  Congo. 

THE  RIVER  CONGO  FROM  ITS  MOUTH  TO 
BOLOBO  (2nd  Edition,  1894,  Sampson  Low). 

THE  LIFE  OF  LIVINGSTONE  (George  Philip). 

BRITISH  CENTRAL  AFRICA  (Methuen). 

THE  COLONIZATION  OF  AFRICA  BY  ALIEN 
RACES  (Cambridge  University  Press). 

THE  UGANDA  PROTECTORATE  (Hutchinson). 

THE  NILE  QUEST  (Alston  Rivers). 

LIBERIA  (Hutchinson). 

THE  BANTU  LANGUAGES  :  Encydopcsdia  Brit- 
annica,  loth  and  iith  Editions  {Tit?ies  Office). 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


https://archive.org/details/georgegrenfellco01john_0 


GEORGE  GRENFELL 
AND  THE  CONGO 


A   HISTORY   AND  DESCRIPTION   OF  THE 

CONGO  INDEPENDENT  STATE  AND  ADJOINING  DISTRICTS 

OF  CONGOLAND 

TOGETHER  WITH   SOME  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  NATIVE  PEOPLES  AND  THEIR 
LANGUAGES,  THE   F  AUNA   AND    I- LORA  ;   AND  SIMILAR   NOTES  ON 

THE  CAMEROONS   AND   THE   ISLAND  OF   FERNANDO  PO 

FOUNDED  ON  THE  DIARIES  AND  RESEARCHES  OF  THE  LATE 

Rev.  GEORGE  GRENFELL,  b.m.s.,  f.r.g.s. 


RY 


SIR  HARRY  JOHNSTON 

G.C.M.G.,  K.C.B.,  Hon.  D.Sc.  Cambs. 


IN  TWO  VOLS. 


With  496  Illustrations  from  Photographs  by  the  Revs.  GEORGE  GRENFELL  and 
William  Forfeitt,  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society,  and  oihers 
And  from  Drawings  by  the  Author 

And  14  Maps  by  the  late  Rev.  GEORGE  GRENFELL,  and  also  by 
\.  W.  ADDISON,  r.  GEO.  soc,  the  last-named  being  based  mainly  on  Grenefll's  Surveys 
And  on  Additional  Material  contributed  by  Mr.  E.  TORDAY,  the  AUTHOR, 
MoNS.  A.  J.  WAUTERS,  the  Publications  of  the  CONGO  STATE, 
THE  ROYAL  GEOGRAPHICAL  SOCIETY, 
And    THE    BAPTIST    MISSIONARY  SOCIETY 


VOL.  I 


NEW  YORK 
D.  APPLETON  &  COMPANY 

19 10 


rritifed  in  Great  Britain 


PREFATORY  REMARKS, 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, 
AND  DEDICATION 


I WAS  specially  invited  to  write  George  Grenfell  and  the  Cotigo  by 
Mr.  Alfred  Henry  Baynes,  for  some  twenty-five  years  Secretary 
of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society.  Mr.  Baynes  viewed  with 
regret  the  possibility  of  the  ethnographical  and  geographical  in- 
formation collected  by  so  many  deceased  members  of  the  Baptist 
Mission  being  lost  sight  of  whilst  it  might  form  a  valuable  contribution 
to  our  knowledge  of  West  Central  Africa. 

In  accomplishing  my  task — one  of  unusual  difficulty— I  have 
received  the  most  valuable  assistance  from  the  Rev.  Lawson  Forfeitt, 
B.M.S.  Secretary  on  the  Congo,  and  for  many  years  a  colleague 
and  close  personal  friend  of  George  Grenfell.  Besides  his  individual 
researches  he  has  opened  up  many  avenues  of  information  among  his 
colleagues  and  friends,  and  has  thus  brought  to  light  new  languages 
and  new  aspects  of  Congo  problems.  Next  in  importance  to  Mr. 
Forfeitt's  help  has  been  that  of  Mr.  Emil  Torday,  a  Hungarian 
traveller  well  known  for  his  lemarkable  ethnographical  collections  and 
reports  on  the  south-western  section  of  the  Congo  basin.  I  cannot 
speak  too  appreciatively  of  Mr.  Torday 's  assistance,  which  has  been 
rendered  not  only  out  of  admiration  for  Grenfell's  work  as  an  explorer, 
but  also  with  a  desire  to  enable  me  to  place  before  the  world  as  large 
a  collection  as  possible  of  precise  information  regarding  native 
habits  and  customs  on  the  Congo.  Mr.  Torday  was  able  repeatedly  to 
elucidate  and  amplify  such  of  Grenfell's  notes  as  might  otherwise  have 
remained  obscure  or  inexplicable.  Grenfell  of  course  inserted  these 
notes  merely  as  a  reminder  to  himself  some  day  to  deal  with  the 
question.  Or  he  would  sum  up  the  heads  of  a  subject  in  a  few  words, 
which  would  have  remained  almost  unmeaning  (unless  he  had  lived  to 
translate  them)  without  the  additional  evidence  that  Mr.  Torday  was 
able  to  place  at  my  disposal. 

Among  the  many  cases  and  boxes  containing  Grenfell's  manuscripts 
were  stores  of  notes  in  handwriting  and  typewriting,  the  exact  origin 


vi 


PREFATORY  REMARKS 


of  which  was  not  always  clear.  Sometimes  they  have  been  identified 
as  original  researches  on  the  part  of  Grenfell  or  his  colleagues.  In 
a  few  cases  they  were  copied  (I  should  think)  from  the  missionary 
magazines  of  other  societies,  or  from  scientific  publications  in  Belgium 
or  Germany.  Wherever  such  extracts  could  be  defined  as  not  being 
in  any  way  connected  with  Grenfell's  work,  and  as  having  received 


[P/wto  by  J.  Russell  ami  Sons  Jroiii  "  The  Baptist  Magazine,"  by 
permission  of  the  Rez'.  James  Stuart,  Editor.] 


2.   THE  REV.  LAWSON  FORFEITT 

For  many  years  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society's  Secretary  on  the  Congo, 
and  the  official  representative  of  the  Mission  to  the  Congo  State 
Government. 

already  independent  publication,  I  have  left  them  unused,  or  have 
merely  referred  to  their  existence.  But  where  there  was  no  means  of 
identification,  and  a  doubt  existed  as  to  whether  the  passage  might  not 
after  all  be  a  note  compiled  by  Grenfell  or  one  of  his  colleagues  which 
had  not  already  appeared  in  print,  I  have  made  use  of  this  information. 
I  have  also  inserted  a  very  few  photographs  collected  by  Grenfell  which 
may  not  have  been  taken  either  by  himself  or  any  of  his  colleagues. 


PREFATORY  REMARKS 


vii 


and  which  are  likewise  without  means  of  identification,  though  illus- 
trating points  in  which  he  was  interested. 

As  it  was  desirable  to  treat  my  subject  widely,  I  have  sought  help 
in  several  directions  for  the  purpose  of  adding  to  the  general  stock  of 
information  and  illustrations  collected  by  the  Baptist  Mission  relative 
to  the  Congo,  Cameroons,  and  Fernando  P6.  Mr.  G.  A.  Boulenger  of 
the  British  Museum  has  kindly  enabled  me  to  have  drawings  or  photo- 
graphs made  of  Congo  fish  (collected  by  Baptist  missionaries  and 
others)  which  are  typical  of  the  fauna  of  the  Congo  basin  or  are  new 
to  science  and  specially  associated  with  the  collecting  work  of  George 
Grenfell  and  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Weeks.  The  Baptist  Missionary  Society 
has  of  course  placed  entirely  at  my  disposal  its  remarkable  ethno- 
graphical collection.  Mr.  T.  Athol  Joyce  of  the  British  Museum 
has  assisted  both  Mr.  Torday  and  myself  not  only  with  information 
and  advice,  but  in  selecting  for  illustration  objects  of  interest  in  the 
collections  of  the  British  Museum,  mostly  those  contributed  by  Baptist 
missionaries.  Baron  Maurice  de  Rothschild  and  M.  Trouessart  (of 
the  Natural  History  Museum,  Paris)  have  supplied  photographs  and  in- 
formation concerning  the  Forest  Pig  and  the  Okapi.  Mr.  R.  H.  Burne^ 
Assistant  Curator  of  the  Museum  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  and 
the  authorities  of  that  College,  together  with  Professor  D.  J.  Cunning- 
ham of  Edinburgh  University,  have  placed  at  my  disposal  interesting 
photographs  of  Congo  skulls.  Mr.  S.  P.  Verner  (formerly  of  the  Ameri- 
can Presbyterian  Congo  Mission)  and  the  Rev.  M.  Martin,  still  of  that 
mission,  have  enlightened  me  on  various  points  concerning  the  Kasai 
region.  I  have  also  received  information  in  matters  of  botany  and 
zoology  from  Colonel  D.  Prain  and  Dr.  Otto  Stapf  of  Kew  Gardens, 
from  Mr,  R.  I.  Pocock  of  the  Zoological  Society,  and  from  Messrs. 
E.  E.  Austen  and  Oldfield  Thomas  of  the  l?ritish  Museum.  Viscount 
Mountmorres  has  permitted  me  to  quote  from  his  Reports  on  the  Congo 
State,  and  Mr.  E.  D.  Morel  has  forwarded  to  me  information  on  many 
subjects.  Mr.  George  Babington  Michell,  H.B.M.  Consul  at  Paris  and 
until  recently  a  Vice-Consul  on  the  Congo,  has  placed  his  vocabularies 
of  Congo  languages  at  my  disposal.  Mr.  G.  L.  Bates  has  done  the 
same  in  regard  to  the  Fan  dialects. 

I  have  in  addition  to  acknowledge  the  co-operation  of  Mr. 
Joseph  Hawkes  and  Miss  Hawkes  of  Birmingham  (connections  of 
the  late  Mr.  Grenfell),  who  have  contributed  several  photographs  and 
notes  to  this  book.  Mr.  Lewis  (Birmingham)  has  kindly  supplied  the 
frontispiece  of  the  first  volume.  I  am  considerably  indebted  to  the 
Rev.  William  Forfeitt  of  Bopoto  for  his  beautiful  pictures  of  Congo 
people  and  scenery,  and  for  his  important  additions  to  our  knowledge 
of  Congo  languages.    The  Rev.  Thomas  Lewis  of  Western  Congo- 


viii 


PREFATORY  REMARKS 


land,  has  lent  several  illustrations.  Mrs.  W.  H.  Stapleton — herself  a 
worker  for  many  years  in  the  Congo  field — has  allowed  me  the  fullest 
access  to  her  husband's  unpublished  philological  work  dealing  with 
the  languages  of  the  Upper  Congo ;  the  Rev.  Theos.  Parr,  M.A., 
of  Bolton,  Lanes.,  has  supplied  much  information  concerning  the 
native  language  of  Fernando  P6 ;  Miss  Emily  Saker,  the  daughter 
of  the  late  Alfred  Saker,  has  rendered  similar  services  regarding  the 
languages  of  the  Cameroons ;  Mrs.  Grenfell  has  placed  her  ethno- 
graphical collections  at  my  disposal  and  has  furnished  the  necessary 
explanation  of  them. 

I  wish  to  tender  my  thanks  to  Dr.  Scott  Keltie,  Secretary  of  the 
Royal  Geographical  Society,  for  advice  and  assistance  in  many  direc- 
tions, and  equally  so  to  Mr.  Edward  Heawood,  the  Librarian  of  that 
Society. 

Mr.  J.  W.  Addison's  work  on  the  maps  has  been  much  more  than 
the  execution  of  a  commission  on  ordinary  business  lines.  He  has 
thrown  into  this  task  an  amount  of  research  and  unrecompensed  labour 
for  which  all  interested  in  African  geography  should  be  grateful.  The 
maps  also  owe  much  to  the  writings  and  to  information  specially 
furnished  by  the  great  Belgian  geographer  Mons.  A.  J.  Wauters  and 
by  M.  Louis  Goffin,  chief  engineer  of  the  Congo  Railway.  I  am  also 
indebted  to  the  Secretariat  of  the  Interior  of  the  Congo  Independent 
State  for  the  gift  of  maps  and  publications  of  the  State. 

I  have  made  frequent  references  to  the  writings  and  researches 
(published  and  unpublished)  of  the  late  Dr.  Holman  Bentley,  as  I  feel 
sure  he  would  have  wished  me  to  do  in  any  comprehensive  survey  of 
the  Congo.  If  I  may  seem  here  and  there  to  have  quoted  him  unduly 
it  has  been  because  he  and  I  were  making  use  on  equal  terms  of  the 
same  sources  of  information — Grenfell's  original  journal  and  letters.  As 
far  as  possible  I  have  left  untouched  the  individual  researches  of 
Dr.  Bentley  himself.  No  one  who  wishes  to  be  completely  acquainted 
with  Congo  questions,  scientific  and  ethical,  can  do  without  such  works 
of  reference  as  the  Dictionary  and  Gravimar  of  the  Kongo  Language  and 
the  two  books  on  Congo  travel  which  Dr.  Bentley  published  respectively 
in  1887  and  1900. 

I  have  used  a  good  deal  of  my  own  material  in  this  book,  have 
produced  drawings  and  photographs  of  my  own,  not  hitherto  published, 
to  illustrate  the  scenery  of  Fernando  P6,  the  Cameroons,  and  the 
western  Congo.  In  a  few  cases,  certain  of  these  sketches  appeared  in 
the  Graphic  and  in  my  own  book  on  the  River  Congo  twenty  to  twenty- 
three  years  ago  ;  but  in  reproducing  them  I  have  gone  back  to  the 
original  drawings. 

Qui  s  excuse,  s  accuse :  I  trust  that  this  rather  lengthy  explanation 


PREFATORY  REMARKS 


IX 


may  not  distract  the  reader  from  the  main  conclusion  that  the  greater 
part  of  this  book,  in  illustrations  as  in  text,  is  new  and  original  matter, 
the  personal  work  of  George  Grenfell,  in  the  first  place  ;  of  Lawson 
Forfeitt,  Emil  Torday,  and  myself  in  a  secondary  degree. 


I  would  venture  to  dedicate  this  work  to  the  Right  Hon.  Sir 
George  Taubman  Goldie,  P.C,  K.C.m.g.,  President  of  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society,  not  only  as  the  expression  of  a  long-standing 
friendship  on  my  part,  but  because  George  Grenfell,  had  he  lived,  would 
certainly  have  wished  to  associate  the  publication  of  his  studies  with 
the  official  rejsresentative  of  a  society  that  he  found  so  prompt  to  accord 
him  encouragement  and  recognition  in  his  geographical  research. 

H.  H.  JOHNSTON. 

Poling,  May,  1908. 


ERRATUM  et  ADDENDUM 

Erratum. — On  page  75,  twelve  lines  from  the  bottom,  owing  should  be  read  instead  of 
owning. 

Addendum. — When  some  months  ago  the  Rev.  Lawson  Forfeitt  placed  in  my  hands 
photographs  by  the  Rev.  K.  J.  Pettersen  {and  by  the  deceased  discoverer,  the  late  Rev.  E. 
Domenjoz)  of  the  ancient  Portuguese  inscriptions  on  the  rocks  or  cliffs  above  Matadi,  near 
the  Mpozo  River,  I  sent  examples  of  these  photographs  to  an  official  in  Lisbon  connected 
with  the  Royal  Academy  of  Portugal,  hoping  that  he  might  be  able  to  obtain  for  me  a  correct 
interpretation.  Unfortunately  the  letter  and  its  enclosures  were  despatched  only  a  few  days 
before  the  assassination  of  the  late  King  and  the  Crown  Prince,  and  either  never  reached  their 
destination  or  were  overlooked  in  the  interruption  of  ordinary  affairs  which  followed  those  sad 
events.  Since  then,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Lewis,  B. M.S.,  submitted  similar  photographs  to  the 
inspection  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society.  In  the  opinion  of  the  Librarian,  Mr.  Edward 
Heawood,  and  in  that  of  the  veteran  geographer  of  Africa,  Mr.  E.  G.  Ravenstein,  the  inscrip- 
tions relate  to  the  second  expedition  to  the  Congo,  commanded  by  Uiogo  Cam  or  Cao  in  1485. 
(An  allusion  to  this  second  expedition  of  Cam's  was  accidentally  omitted  by  me  in  my  brief 
enumeration  of  the  leading  events  of  early  Congo  history  on  page  70.) 

Mr.  Heawood  deciphers  the  inscription  in  illustration  32  as  follows:  "  Aqy  chegaram  os 
navios  do  {next  ivord  undecipherable)  Rey  Dom  Joam  ho  seg°  de  Portugall  :  D°  Caao  :  P°  Ans 
P"  Dacosta — (among  other  names  to  the  right) — Alvaro  Pirez,  Pero  Escolar,  Joao  de  Santiago, 
Joiio  Alves,  Diogo  Pinero,  Gonzalo  Alvares,  Antam."  [Joam  or  Joao  is  mostly  abbreviated  to 
J°.  Antam  is  equivalent  to  Antao,  Anton,  or  Antonio.  In  old  Portuguese  the  nasal  termina- 
tion now  usually  rendered  by  ao  was  frequently  spelt  ani.'\  This  can  be  translated  (as  Mr.  Hea- 
wood points  out) :  "  Here  arrived  the  ships  of  the  (?  fleet)  of  the  King  Dom  John  the  Second  of 
Portugal:  Diogo  Cao,  Pedro  Anes,  Pedro  da  Costa,  etc."  [Vide  TJie  Geograpltieal Jouj-nal, 
June  1908,  pp.  590  and  615.] 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Lewis  points  out  in  his  paper  on  "The  Old  Kingdom  of  Kongo"  {The 
Geographical  Journal,  June  1908)  that  the  Portuguese  mariners  of  Diogo  Cam's  expedition  in 
1485  must  have  displayed  extraordinary  daring,  resolution,  and  skill  in  steering,  rowing,  warp- 
ing, hauling  their  ship  past  the  whirlpools  of  Hell's  Cauldron,  the  terrific  force  of  the  current, 
and  the  dangerous  rocks  above  Matadi,  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mpozo  River,  where  they  found 
anchorage  in  a  quiet  re.ich  of  water,  and  whence  they  climbed  the  rocks  to  inscribe  a  record  of 
their  heroic  feat — a  record  which  was  to  remain  entirely  overlooked  in  geographical  circles  until 
1908,  though  it  was  discovered  about  1900  by  the  late  Mr.  E.  Domenjoz,  a  Swiss  missionary  in 
the  service  of  the  (English)  Congo-Balolo  Mission.  A  portrait  of  Mr.  Domenjoz  is  given  on 
p.  824. 

II.  H.  J. 


ORTHOGRAPHY 


THE  spelling  of  African  names  in  this  work  is  practically  that  in  use  by  the  Royal  Geo- 
graphical Society,  the  Indian  Government,  etc.     The  consonants  have  mostly  their 
English  value,  the  vowels  are  as  in  German  or  Italian-    No  consonant  is  doubled  unless 
it  is  doubly  pronounced.     N  is  pronounced  like  ng  in  "  ring,"  "  ringing."     O  is  pronounced 
like  o  in  "  bone  "  ;  6  like  o  in  "  store  "  ;  unaccented  o  as  in  "  not." 

For  the  accurate  transcription  of  languages,  I  prefer  to  use  the  system  of  Lepsius,  with  very 
slight  modern  modifications.  This  will  be  found  duly  explained  in  the  chapter  dealing  with  the 
Languages  of  the  Congo  and  Cameroons.  It  does  not  differ  materially  from  the  orthography 
used  for  Geographical  names.  With  regard  to  my  rendering  of  the  native  names  of  Rivers, 
Lakes,  Mountains,  Towns,  Chiefs,  and  Tribes,  I  have  naturally  aimed  at  a  correct  transcrip- 
tion of  the  native  pronunciation.  Wherever  this  could  not  be  ascertained  by  reference  to  the 
notes  of  Grenfell,  Bentley  (whom  I  have  mostly  followed,  because  I  know  his  hearing  of  native 
speech  to  have  been  very  accurate),  or  by  my  own  personal  experience  in  western,  north-eastern, 
or  south-eastern  Congoland,  I  have  accepted  the  official  version  of  the  Congo  State.  The  last- 
named  does  not  generally  differ  from  the  transliteration  of  Grenfell  and  Bentley,  and  is  usually 
much  more  correct  (as  regards  correspondence  with  native  pronunciation  and  etymology)  than 
the  somewhat  haphazard  spelling  adopted  by  most  French  authorities  (excepting  Mons. 
A.  Chevalier).  But  in  some  cases  I  find  myself  in  disaccord  with  the  Congolese  cartographers, 
as  for  example  over  the  name  Mubangi.  Not  only  do  Grenfell  and  all  the  Baptist  missionaries 
write  this  word  "  Mubangi,"  but  when  in  Uganda  or  north-east  Congoland  I  have  discussed 
the  point  with  Bangala  soldiers,  etc.,  from  the  lower  Mubangi  they  pronounced  thus  the  name 
of  that  great  river  in  its  lowermost  course.  Nowhere  have  I  heard  the  rendering  "  Ubanghi." 
This,  like  not  a  few  official  titles  of  places  in  the  Congo  basin,  is  due  to  a  Swahili  corruption. 
Stanley  and  most  of  the  earlier  pioneers  knew  no  other  African  speech  than  Swahili,  and  heard 
all  native  place  names  through  Swahili  ears,  an  annoying  thing  to  those  who  take  an  interest  in 
the  correct  rendering  of  the  Bantu  languages.  "  Ubangi,"  "  Ubanghi,"  "  Mbangi,"  have  no 
meaning  to  a  native,  any  more  than  "  Upoto"  for  Bopoto. 

There  is  another  point  that  requires  some  explanation.  The  reader  may  notice  that  place 
or  river  names  are  sometimes  written  with  an  /,  sometimes  with  an  r,  and  at  others  with  a  d. 
(Thus  we  have  Dua,  Rua,  Lua  ;  Mbidizi  or  Mbirizi  ;  Rubi  and  Lubi  ;  Sankulu  and  (less  correctly) 
Sankuru  ;  Irebu  and  Ilebo. )  This  is  due  to  the  inability  of  most  Bantu  negroes  to  distinguish 
between  r/,  r,  and  /  in  their  pronunciation.  At  the  same  time,  among  the  Bantu  of  the  Congo 
it  must  be  admitted  that  r  is  the  least  common  form  of  these  Unguals.  On  the  other  hand,  r 
predominates  in  some  of  the  dialects  of  South-West  Africa,  and  especially  in  the  mouths  of  the 
Zanzibari  negroes  or  Arabs.  Consequently  many  Geographical  names  are  established  by  long 
use  with  an  "r"  pronunciation  which  is  quite  foreign  to  local  speech.  As  the  point  matters  less 
than  the  bother  of  changing  established  orthography,  I  have  often  left  these  words  unaltered 
and  have  preferred  to  go  on  using  "  Sankuru"  instead  of  changing  it  to  Sankulu. 

There  is  occasional  variation  in  this  book  and  its  maps  as  to  the  title  of  the  Congo  State. 
This  is  usually  given  in  its  full  correct  form  as  the  "Congo  Independent  State."  But  in  some 
places — for  the  sake  of  brevity — "  Congo  State,"  and  in  others — from  oversight — "  Congo  Free 
State"  is  used.  Who  is  responsible  for  this  last  incorrect  rendering  of  the  official  title  I  do  not 
know,  but  it  has  obtained  such  a  hold  in  our  speech  that  it  is  difficult  to  eradicate  it. 

H.  H.  J. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL. 


CHAPTER  I 
Gkorge  Gkenfell  ..... 

CHAPTER  II 
Fernando  P6  :  1840-58  .... 

CHAPTER  III 

The  Cameroons  :  1845-87 

CHAPTER  IV 
Modern  Missionary  Pioneers  in  Congoland  . 

CHAPTER  V 
The  Modern  History  of  the  Congo 

CHAPTER  VI 
San  Salvador  and  Stanley  Pool 

CHAPTER  VII 
Grenfell's  First  Journey  Beyond  Stanley  Pool 

CHAPTER  VIII 
The  Discovery  of  the  Mubangi 

CHAPTER  IX 
The  Rivers  of  Central  Congoland 

CHAPTER  X 
Times  of  Uncertainty  .... 


CHAPTER  XI 

The  Lunda  Expedition 


Xll 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  XII  PAGE 
Missionary  Vicissitudes    .  .  .  .  .  .       .  221 

CHAPTER  XIII 

The  River  Congo  ........  265 

CHAPTER  XIV 

The  Northern  Truiutaries        ......  326 

CHAPTER  XV 

The  Journey  to  the  Undiscovered  Bourne    .  .  .  -372 

CHAPTER  XVI 

CoNGOLAND  Before  the  White  Man  Ruled     .  .  .       .  382 

CHAPTER  XVII 

History  of  the  Congo  State  :   I.  Its  Foundation     .  .       .  408 

CHAPTER  XVIII 
History  of  the  Congo  State:   II.  The  Arab  War    .  .  424 

CHAPTER  XIX 

History  of  the  Congo  State:    III.  Advance  to  the  Nile  and 

Later  Developments        .  .  .  .  .       .  435 

CHAPTER  XX 

The  Misdeeds,  Mistakes,  and  Achievemenjs  of  the  Congo  St.\te  445 

Appendix  I.  concessionnaire  companies  in  the  basin  of  the  congo  476 
II.  extracts  from  private  letters  written  by  grenfell 

IN    1902   and    1903  .  .  .  .  .  480 

HI.  viscount  mountmorres  and  the  CONGO  independent 

STATE  .......  484 

IV.    MONS.  LOUIS  GOFFIN  AND  TFIE  SUBJECT  OF  FORCED  LABOUR  486 

V.    RECORD  OF  SCIENTIFIC  WORK,  ETC.,  ACCOMPLISHED  BY  THE 

CONGO  STATE  .  .  .  .  .         .  49I 

VI.    WATERWAYS  AND  RAILWAYS     .....  493 

VII.    ARMY  SERVICE  AS  A  MEANS  OF  EDUCATION     .  .  .  494 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


George  Grenfell       .  ... 

2.  The  Rev.   Lawson  Forfeitt.     For  many 

years  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society's 
Secretary  on  the  Congo,  and  the  official 
representative  of  the  Mission  to  the 
Congo  State  Government  . 

3.  Grenfell  in  1878,  starting  with  first  B.M.S. 

mission  to  San  Salvador,  kingdom  of 
Kongo   .  .  ... 

4.  Specimen  page   of  Grenfell's   notes  on 

journey  up  the  Lulongo-Maringa  in  1885 : 
distances  in  hours 

5.  Bolobo  station  ;  Grenfell's  home  on  the 

Upper  Congo  for  sixteen  years 

6.  A  missionary's  house  at  Bolengi,  Upper 

Congo    .  .  ... 

7.  Brick-making  at  Bopoto,  an  element  in 

"  sound  material  civilization  " 

8.  Native  blacksmiths  trained  at  the  Baptist 

Mission  on  the  Upper  Congo 

9.  B.M.S.S.  Peace  (on  the  northern  Congo 

near  Stanley  Falls).  The  Peace  was 
the  steamer  in  which  Grenfell  made  his 
principal  exploring  journeys 

10.  The  Rev.  John  Clarke,  a  pioneer  African 

philologist  and  missionary  in  Fernando 
P6         .  .  ... 

1 1.  Clarence  (or  Santa  Isabel)  Peak,  Fernando 

P6 — about  10,000  feet  in  altitude  . 

12.  A  Bube  or  indigenous  native  of  Fernando  P6 

13.  The  Cameroons  Mountains  seen  from  near 

Fernando  P6        .  ... 

14.  A  typical  Duala  gentleman  of  the  olden 

time  (about  1874) — Shark  Dido  of  Dido 
Town,  Cameroons,  son  of  the  Chief 
Dido  herein  referred  to       .  .  . 

15.  Carved  Duala  stool  belonging  to  a  chief  . 

16.  The  Cameroons  Mountains  and  the  loca- 

tion of  Ambas  Bay  settlement  of  Victoria : 
seen  from  Mondole  Island  . 


17 


Alfred  Saker  :  from  a  photograph  taken 
about  1873  .  ... 

18.  The  Manenguba  Mountains,  north-west  of 

Cameroons  River,  as  observed  by  the 
Author  in  1886      .  ... 

19.  The  Little  Cameroons  Peak  . 

20.  Tree-ferns  on  the  Cameroons  Mountain  (the 

pass  named  by  Burton  "  Fern  Gate  ")  . 


SOURCE  PAGE 
From  a  photograph  by  Mr.  Thomas 
Lewis,  of  Birmingham  Frontispiece 


From  a  photograph  lent  bv  Rev. 
James  Stuart  .  .        .  vi 


Photograph  taken  by  T.  J.  Comber  3 


Photograph  by  Grenfell 


7 
9 
II 


Photograph  by  Rev.  William  Forfeitt  13 
Photograph  by  Grenfell  .        .  15 


Photograph  by  Baptist  Mission       .  19 

From  a  sketch  by  Sir  Harry  Johnston  21 

25 


28 


Photograph  lent  by  Miss  Emily  Saker  29 
Photograph  lent  by  Rev.  Lawson 
Forfeitt       .  .  .       .  31 


From  a  painting  by  Sir  Harry  John- 
ston .  .  •       •  39 


42 


Sketch  by  Sir  Harry  Johnston  .       .  44 
>.  >>  !.  •       •  4,S 


47 


xiv 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


NO.  TITLE  SOURCE  PAGE 

21.  Mount  Victoria,  the  Hig-h  Peak  of  the 

Cameroons,  about  13,500  feet  in  altitude. 
In  the  foreground  is  a  great  "stream" 

of  lava  and  scoriae  .  .       .    Sketch  by  Sir  Harry  Johnston  .        .  49 

22.  Bell    Town    Beach,    Duala,  Cameroons 

River,  1886  .  ...  ,,  M  •       •  53 

23.  King  "Bell"  of  Cameroons:  taken  about 

1874      .  .  ...    Photograph  lent  by  Miss  Emilj' Saker  56 

24.  Lissochiliis  gi«anteus  orchids,  ten  to  fifteen 

feet  high,  growing  on  the  Cameroons 

River     .  .  ...    Sketch  b}'  Sir  Harry  Johnston .       .  57 

25.  The  Duala  shore  ("Bell  Town  beach")  in 

1907       .  .  ...    Photograph  lent  by  the  Basel  Mission  59 

26.  The  remaining  Baptist  mission  station  at 

Sopo,  in  the  Cameroons  (under  native 

missionaries)        .  ...  ,,  ,,  ,,60 

27.  The  highest  summit  of  the  Cameroons 

(sketched  by  the  present  writer  in  1886)    From  sketch  bj-  Sir  Harry  Johnston  61 

28.  Baobab  tree  at  San  Salvador,  showing 

initials  of  Lieut.  Grand}-,  1873,  and  of 

Comber  and  Grenfell  carved  in  1878      .    Photograph  b}' Rev.  H.  Ross  Phillips  64 

29.  Tungwa,  reached  by  Grenfell  and  Comber 

in  1878.    (Here  Comber  was  wounded 

by  a  bullet  in  1880)  .  .       .    Photograph  by  Grenfell  .  65 

30.  Native  musicians  at  Tungwa,  1878  .       .  ,,  ,,  ,,  .       .  67 

31.  Portuguese  inscription   on   rocks  above 

Matadi,  near  Mpozo  River:  inscribed  by 

Diogo  Cam's  Second  Expedition  in  1485    Photograph  by  Rev.  K.  J.  Pettersen  71 

32.  Principal    inscription    of    Diogo  Cam's 

Second  Expedition  of  1485  (rocks  near 
Matadi  and  Mpozo  River),  giving  names 

of  chief  persons  in  expedition       .       .  ,,  ,,  ,,  72 

33.  Ruins  of  the  convent,  San  Salvador,  built 

by  the    Portuguese   in   the  sixteenth 

century  .  .  ...    Photograph  by  Grenfell  .       .  73 

34.  A  map  of  the  Congo  regions  published  at 

Amsterdam  in  1733  in  the  Atlas  of 
Guillaume  de  I'lsle  (Publishers,  Jan 
Covens  and  Corneille  Mortier).  This 
represents  the  utmost  information  ever 
given  to  the  world  b}'  the  Portuguese, 
Italian,  French,  and  Flemish  explorers 
(mainly  missionaries)  down  to  the  middle 

of  the  eighteenth  centur}'  ...  .  .  ...  79 

35.  Tree  under  which  Livingstone's  heart  was  . 

buried  at  the  village  of  Chitambo  .       .    Photograph    by    Captain  Poulett 

Weatherley  . '  .  .  .81 

36.  Image  of  Christ  found  at  San  Salvador, 

used  as  a  fetish.    Some  two  or  three 

hundred  years  old  .  .       .    Photograph  supplied  bj'  the  Baptist 

Mission  from  object  in  their  col- 
lections       .  .  .        .  86 

37.  Ruins  of  chancel  arch  of  ancient  Portu- 

guese cathedral  at  San  Salvador   .       ,    Photograph  by  Grenfell  .       .  88 

38.  A  group  of  Congo  pioneers  at  Musuko — 

(left  to  right)  Hartland,  Crudgington, 

Comber,    Rlr.   ,    a   trader,  Mr. 

Greshoff  (the  agent  of  the  Dutch  house), 

Mrs.  Grenfell,  and  Holman  Bentley      .,,,>>>  .       •  89 

39.  The  Mbidizi  or  Mbirizi  River  below  the 

Arthington  Falls  .  ...    Photograph  by  Rev.  Thomas  Lewis  92 

40.  The  shore  of  Leopoldville,  in  1883.  Sketch 

by  the  author       .  ...    Sketch  by  Sir  Harry  Johnston .       .  93 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xv 


NO. 
41- 


After 


TITLE 

journey  in  B.  M.S.S.  Peace,  Paul 


PAGE 


Crampel,  the  famous  French  explorer, 
who  made  important  discoveries  in  the 
basin  of  the  Sanga,  dedicated  his  map 
of  the  Cameroons  -  Congo  hinterland 
to  Grenfell.  Crampel  was  assisted  by 
Grenfell  to  ascend  the  Mubangi.  He 
was  the  first  explorer  to  penetrate  from 
the  Congo  basin  to  that  of  Lake  Chad, 
and  was  killed  in  Baghirmi  in  1890 

42.  The  wooded  banks  of  the  Congo  between 

Stanley  Pool  and  the  Kwa  junction, 
rising  to  about  800  feet  above  stream- 
level      .  .  ... 

43.  The  rocky  points  or  reefs  which  stretch 

out  into  the  Congo  or  Kasai,  and  often 
cause  steamers  to  come  to  grief  . 

44.  Lone  Island,  where  the  Congo  broadens, 

near  Chumbiri      .  ... 

45.  A  B. M.S.    house  at  Lukolela  :  station 

founded  by  Grenfell  in  1885 

46.  Bapulula,  a  pilot  on  the  Peace  steamer  (a 

Mongata  man,  recruited  after  Grenfell's 
first  voyage)        .  ... 

47.  An  Ngumba  house  at  Bolobo,  belonging  to 

Chief  Ibaka  (showing  enemies'  skulls  on 
roof)      .  .  ... 

48.  Necklace  of  human  eeth  from  the  northern 

Congo   .  .  ... 

49.  A  fleet  of  canoe  dwellings  at  Isangi,  mouth 

of  Lomami  River,  1891.  (In  the  days  of 
the  early  Arab  troubles  many  of  the 
Lomami  people  took  to  living  in  canoes, 
a  practice  formerly  adopted  for  trading 
purposes)  .  ... 

50.  A  pot  from  the  upper  Mubangi — red  and 

blue-grey  .  ... 

51.  Grenfell's  "  Calamus  "  palm,  in  two  stages 

of  growth.  (This  climbing  palm  is  really 
AiicistropliyUum  sccundifioruin.  It  is 
found  all  over  the  Congo  basin,  growing 
to  heights  of  two  and  three  hundred  feet) 

52.  Scene  typical  of  flood-time  on  the  river, 

water  up  to  the  houses 

53.  Young  form  of  Ancistrophyllum  sccundi- 

floriim  climbing  palm.  (Beginning  like 
this,  the  Ancistropliylhim  gradually  de- 
velops barbed  hooks  and  segmented 
fronds,  and  scrambles  to  the  top  of  the 
highest  trees)  .  ... 
54  The  red  fruits  and  seed  of  the  climbing 
AncistrophyUiiui  palm.  The  seeds  are 
sometimes  strung  together  as  necklaces. 
The  fruit  is  slightly  sweet,  and  edible  . 

55.  (i)  Batwa  bow,  arrows,  and  quiver  from 

the  Juapa  region.  (2)  A  "  wooden  club  " 
or  cleaver  from  the  upper  Juapa 

56.  German  pioneers  of  Congo  exploration 

photographed  at  Stanley  Pool — (begin- 
ning on  left,  Von  Francois,  Wissmann, 
Wolf,  and  Hans  Muller)' 

57.  A  group  of  Baluba  natives  (von  Wiss- 

mann's  expedition) 


99 


Sketch  by  Sir  Harry  Johnston       .  103 

•  105 
.  no 


Photograph  by  Grenfell 


1!  )»  >>  >' 


Photograph  by  Grenfell 


112 


"3 


119 


)>  '>  >' 

Photograph  from  Grenfell's  specimen    1 22 


Photograph  by  William  Forfeitt     .  126 


133 


Drawing  by  Sir  Harry  Johnston  .  136 
Photograph  by  William  Forfeitt    .  137 


Drawing  by  Sir  Harry  Johnston    .  141 


142 


Photograph  by  Baptist  Mission     .  144 


■  147 
.  148 


xvi  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


NO.  TITLE 

58.  The  lower  Kwango  River 

59.  The  Saiikurii  River  near  Lusambo.  Fish 

traps  and  fish  weirs  in  the  foreground  . 

60.  Kasai  cloth  of  raised  pile.     Made  from 

raphia  "bast"  or  fibre  (the  substance 
of  the  leaflets  of  the  young  fronds) 

61.  A   typical    Muyanzi    (a   sawyer   of  the 

Mission  at  Bolobo).  1  he  Bayanzi  or 
Babangi  range  from  the  lower  Kasai  to 
the  main  Congo  and  the  Mubangi  con- 
fluence .  .  ... 

62.  (1)  Native  fetish  from  the  southern  part  of 

the  cataract  region  of  the  Congo.  The 
strings  tied  round  the  neck  are  offerings 
for  benefits  received.  (2)  Image  of  St. 
Christopher  and  the  Infant  Christ,  found 
in  the  San  Salvador  district — possibly 
some  two  or  three  hundred  years  old. 
Has  been  used  as  a  fetish.  Similar  types 
to  (i)  and  (2)  are  found  among  the  Kioko 
and  Bashilange    .  ... 

63.  Bakuba  axes  of  wrought  iron,  from  the 

Kasai-Sankuru.  These  are  carried  be- 
fore a  chief  as  a  sign  of  authority 
(Grenfell).  The  Bakuba  and  Baluba 
are  great  iron-workers 

64.  A  specimen  of  Luba  pottery :  a  water- 

cooler  from  Luluabourg  (Lulua  River)  . 

65.  Cloth   of  raised   pile  from  the  Bakuba 

country  (Sankuru  River) 

66.  Congo  pioneers — (beginning  on  left,  lower 

rank)  Dr.  A.  Sims,  Grenfell,  Cap- 
tain Deane  ;  (right  hand,  upper  rank) 
Michael  Richards,  A.  Billington,  J.  G. 
Brown   .  .  ... 

67.  The  "  Upside-down  fish  " — Euiropius  lati- 

ceps,  from  Lake  Leopold  II  ;  where  it 
sometimes  grows  to  a  length  of  six  feet. 
It  is  considered  very  good  eating  b}'  the 
natives  .  .  ... 

68.  Head  of  hippopotamus  shot  by  Grenfell  . 

69.  Major  Barttelot  and  a  section  of  the  Emin 

Pasha  expedition  off  Lukolela,  Upper 
Congo   .  .  ... 

70.  Rev.  W.  Holman  Bentley,  B.MS.,  d.d. 

Glasgow  ;  author  of  Kongo  Dictionary 
and  Grammar      .  ... 

71.  Cloth  of  raised  pile  from  Ntomba  district 

72.  Prepared  manioc  roots  {k7i'a>iga),  sugar- 

cane, etc.  A  school  feast  on  the  Upper 
Congo  .  .  ... 

73.  Citharinus  congicus,  a  fish  much  eaten  by 

the  natives  of  Stanley  Pool  and  the  Llpper 
Congo.  [This  species,  about  12  to  15 
inches  long,  is  smoked,  and  becomes  an 
important  article  in  native  commerce.] 
Its  name,  and  that  of  other  Citharini, 
is  Lobolio  among  the  Bayanzi 

74.  Herbert  \\'ard  and  his  section  of  the  Emin 

Pasha  relief  expedition  on  the  Congo  in 
canoes   .  .  ... 


SOLRCE  PAGE 

Pilotograph  by  Grenfell  .  .  152 

Photograph  bj-  E.  Tordaj-  .  •  '54 

,.  .  •  157 

Photograph  by  Grenfell  .  •  '59 


Photograph  by  Baptist  Mission      .  161 

•  '62 

Photograph  by  Torda}-          .        .  163 

„              .       .  '64 

Photograph  by  Rev.  R.  D.  Darby.  166 

Photograph   lent   by    Mr.    G.  A. 

Boulenger,  British  Museum  .  168 
Photograph  by  Grenfell         .  .169 


Photograph  lent  by  Baptist  Mission  173 

Photograph  by  Baptist  Mission      .  175 

Photograph  by  William  Forfeitt     .  177 

Drawn  from  specimen  in  British 

Museum     .  .  .       .  178 

Photograph  by  Grenfell         .       .  180 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


xvii 


NO.  TITLE 

75.  Mfutila,  the  late  King  of  Koiig-o  ;  suc- 

ceeded his  father  at  San  Salvador  in  1892 

76.  Chiefs  and   noblemen  at  San  Salvador, 

Kingdom  of  Kongo 

77.  A  group  of  Baptist  missionaries  (including 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Grenfell)  at  the  launching 
of  the  Goodnnll    .  ... 

78.  Captain  Gorin  riding  an  ox  on  the  Lunda 

Expedition  .  ... 

79.  Facsimile  of  King  Leopold's  commission 

to  the  Rev.  George  Grenfell  to  serve  as 
plenipotentiary  on  the  Frontier  Delimita- 
tion Commission  for  the  determination 
of  the  frontier  between  Portugal  and  the 
Congo  State        .  ... 

80.  M.  Froment  on  the  Lunda  expedition 

81.  Hammock-travelling  on  the  Lunda  expedi- 

tion      .  .  ... 

82.  The  Kwango  River  seen  from  the  Fort  of 

Popokabaka        .  ... 

83.  TheKiamvo,  Mwene-Puto-Kasongo (centre 

figure) ;  from  a  photograph  taken  by 
P^re  Butaye  in  1906 

84.  Capt.  Drag  Lehrmann 

85.  Kwango  River  from  beach  near  Popokabaka 

86.  Grenfell's  tent  on  Lunda  expedition  . 

87.  A  metallophone  from  the  Kongo-Kwango 

region,  called  Mbiti  by  the  natives 

88.  In  the  Berthon  boat  on  the  Kwango  River, 

Lunda  expedition 

89.  Franz  Josef  Falls  of  the  Kwango  River, 

discovered  by  the  Austrian  explorer  von 
Mechow,  1880      .  ... 

90.  Baholo  people,  upper  Kwango 

91.  Rapids  of  the  Kwango 

92.  Major  and  Mme.  Sarmento,  Lunda  expedi- 

tion      .  .  ... 

93.  The  members  of  the  Lunda  Delimitation 

Commission  ;  also  Mme.  Sarmento  and 
Mrs.  Grenfell       .  ... 

94.  Hills  bordering  Wamba  Valley 

95.  Crossing  Kwilu  River,  Lunda  expedition  . 

96.  Submerged  bridge,  Kwilu  River 

97.  Hungry  porters  on  the  Lunda  expedition 

returning  to  Angola 

98.  Grenfell  riding  an  ox,  Lunda  expedition  . 

99.  Grenfell's  native  attendants  on  the  Lunda 

expedition  .  ... 

100.  The  sketch  survey  of  the  Portuguese- 

Congo  boundary,  etc.,  signed  by  the 
three  Commissioners 

101.  The  grave  of  Rev.  F.  R.  Oram  at  Bopoto, 

Northern  Congo 

102.  Rev.  Albert  Wherrett's  grave  at  Yakusu, 

Stanley  Falls      .  ... 

103.  Rev.  T.  J.  Comber  at  Arthington  . 

104.  Rev.  J.  Pinnock  and  his  family.  (Mr. 

Pinnock  is  a  West  Indian,  and  son  of 
the  Rev.  J.  Pinnock,  a  pioneer  in  the 
Cameroons.  Mr.  Pinnock  himself  served 
for  some  years  in  the  Cameroons) 

l.—b 


SOURCE 
Photograph  by  Grenfell 


PAGE 
.  181 
,  182 


Photograph  lent  by  Pt?re  Butaye 
Photog-raph  by  Grenfell 


Photographed  by  Grenfell's  camera  183 
Photograph  by  Grenfell         .        .  187 


189 
190 

191 
193 

195 
196 
198 
199 

201 

203 

204 
205 
206 

209 

210 
211 
212 
213 

216 
217 

219 


.   To  face  page  220 
Photo  by  William  Forfeitt      .  .221 


Photograph  by  Grenfell 


222 
223 


225 


xviii 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


NO.  TITLE 

105.  The  station  of  New  Underhill  on  the  Lower 

Cong-o,  at  the  commencement  of  the 
cataract  reg'ion  .  ... 

106.  A  house  of  the  B.M.S.   at  Lukolela, 

Western  Equatorial  Congo 

107.  A  framework  made  by  the  natives  of  the 

western  Congo  for  protecting  the  face 
against  mosquitoes  and  sand-flies.  A 
hght  cloth  is  placed  over  the  wicker- 
work  mask         .  ... 

108.  Leopard  killed  on  Upper  Congo  by  Rev. 

W.  H.  Stapleton.  (Mr.  Stapleton  is  in 
left-hand  corner  of  the  picture) 

109.  Locust  devouring  a  mouse  . 

1 10.  A  flash  of  lightning  on  the  Upper  Congo 

111.  The  Mission  school  at  Bolobo 

112.  Missionary  going  on  tour  of  inspection 

in  house-boat,  Upper  Congo 

113.  Patience  Grenfell  and  her  school-children 

at  Yakusu  .  ... 

114.  Crinum  lilies  of  the  Upper  Congo  . 

115.  Camoensia  maxima 

116.  Protopterus  dolloi,  the  Lung-fish  of  the 

Upper  Congo     .  ... 

117.  The  Mission  laundry  man,  Bopoto  . 

118.  A  sewing  class  at  Bopoto 

119.  Mrs.  Grenfell's  sewing  class,  Bolobo 

120.  "  How  they  look  when  they  first  come  to 

the  Mission "       .  .  .  . 

121.  "  After  six  months  " 

122.  The  garden  of  a  B.M.S.  station,  Upper 

Congo .  .  ... 

123.  Brick-makers  at  B.M.S.  station,  Yakusu 

124.  Portuguese  Roman  Catholic  Mission  sta- 

tion, Malanje,  Portuguese  Congo 

125.  Scholars  at  a  Portuguese  Roman  Catholic 

Mission  station,  Portuguese  Congo 

126.  Man  and  woman  of  the  Ngombe  tribe, 

adherents  of  the  Baptist  Mission,  Bo- 
poto    .  .  ... 

127.  Natives  streaming  down  to  welcome  the 

Mission  steamer  at  Yakusu,  Upper 
Congo  .  .  ... 

128.  The  Peace  damaged  in  a  storm 

129.  The  boys  who  helped  to  put  the  Peace 

right  again        .  ... 

130.  The  Good^vill  steamer  at  Bolobo 

131.  Bungudi,  the  Mission  engineer,  and  his 

wife  (Bungudi  was  a  Bateke  boy  trained 
by  Grenfell)        .  ... 

132.  Lokongi,  a  Mission  teacher  at  Bolobo 

133.  Grenfell,  Lawson  Forfeitt,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 

Lewis  at  San  Salvador,  1893 

134.  Map  of  Banana  Point,  at  the  north  side 

of  the  Congo  mouth 

135.  Banana  Point,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Congo 

136.  The  estuarine  Congo  near  its  mouth 

137.  Skin  of  python,  25  ft.  long,  2  ft.  7  in.  broad 

when  dry,  killed  at  Ngangila,  near 
Matadi.  .  .  .  . 


SOURCE  PAGE 

Photograph  by  Rev.  William  Forfeitt  227 

Photograph  by  Grenfell         .  .  229 

Photograph  by  Baptist  Mission  .  230 

Photograph  by  Grenfell         .  .  231 

Photograph  lent  by  Lavi'son  Forfeitt  233 

Photograph  by  William  F"orfeitt  .  234 

Photograph  by  Grenfell         .  .  235 

Photograph  by  William  Forfeitt  .  237 

Photograph  by  Grenfell         .  .  239 

Photo  by  William  Forfeitt      .  .  242 

Sketch  by  Sir  Harry  Johnston  .  243 

Photo  lent  by  Mr.  G.  A.  Boulenger  244 

Photo  by  William  Forfeitt      .  .  245 

>,              •  .  246 

Photograph  by  Grenfell         .  .  247 

„          „             .  ■  248 

„          „             •  •  248 

Photo  by  William  Forfeitt      .  .  249 

„           ->              .  •  250 

Photograph  by  Grenfell         .  -251 

>>           .1           >>              •  •  252 

Photo  by  William  Forfeitt      .  .  253 

Photograph  by  Grenfell         .  .  255 

,,          „             .  •  257 

„                        .  •  258 

,,                        •  •  259 


•       •  263 

Photograph  by  Lewis's  camera     .  265 

.  266 

Photograph  by  Grenfell         .       .  267 

From  a  picture  by  Sir  Harryjohnston  268 

Photograph  by  William  Forfeitt     .  269 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


xix 


NO.  TITLE 

138.  Looking'  down  the  Conj^o  towards  Boma, 

from  Underhill    .  .  .  . 

139.  Old  Underbill  (Tiinduwa)  and  Hell's  Caul- 

dron    .  .  ... 

140.  Looking-  down    the   Congo    from  Vivi 

westwards  .  .  .  . 

141.  A  steamer  ascending^  the  Lower  Congo 

heading;  for  the  port  of  Matadi 

142.  The  River  Congo  above  Vivi,  near  (i.e. 

below)  the  first  Fall 

143.  General  view  of  the  Yalala  Falls 

144.  Falls  of  Congo  at  Isangila  :  sketch  by 

the  Author         .  ... 

145.  A  Congo  cataract  :  sketch  by  the  Author 

146.  The  site  of  Manyang-a,  central  cataract 

region  .  .  ... 

147.  Scenery  in  the  cataract  region  of  the 

Congo  (south  of  the  river) 
14S.  Nzeke  Rapids,  the  last  of  the  Livingstone 
Falls,  near  Vivi  .  ... 

149.  View  of  Congo  in  the  cataract  reg^ion 

near  Stanley  Pool 

150.  An  island  off  Kinshasa  on  Stanley  Pool, 

1883     .  .  .  .  . 

151.  Dover  Cliffs,  Stanley  Pool  . 

152.  Last  relics  of  the  ancient  Congo  plateau 

— hills  ling-ering  on  the  western  bank 
of  the  Upper  Congo,  near  Bolobo 

153.  Borassus  palms  on  the  Upper  Cong-o 

154.  View  on  the  Upper  Congo,  near  Bopoto, 

to  show  islands  .  ... 

155.  View  down  the  Congo  at  Bopoto  from  a 

mission  house     .  ... 

156.  On  the  banks  of  the  Cong-o  near  Bvvemba 

157.  The  banks  of  the  Congo  at  Yalemba, 

east  of  the  Aruwimi  confluence  . 

158.  Borassus   palms   on   an  island  of  the 

Upper  Congo     .  ... 

159.  The  snags  that  wreck  the  steamers 

160.  The  Mission  steamer  Goodwill  hovi  on  at 

Yakusu  .  ... 

161.  The  village  of  Lisala,  near  Bopoto. 

162.  The  Chopo Falls,  near  the  Lindi  confluence 

163.  Off  Yakusu  beach  .  ... 

164.  A  corner  of  Stanley  Falls 

165.  The  railway  line  along  the  Lualaba-Congo 

near  Ponthierville,  opposite  the  mouth 
of  the  Lilu  River 

166.  Saw-mills  on  the  railway  between  Stanley 

Falls  and  Ponthierville 

167.  A  train  on  the  railway  from  Stanley  Falls 

to  Ponthierville  .  ... 

168.  A  Congo  State  station  between  Stanley 

Falls  and  Ponthierville 

169.  Lualaba-Congo  above  Stanley  Falls 

170.  Lualaba-Congo  in  the  vicinity  of  Nyangwe 

171.  A  state  canoe  on  the  Lualaba-Congo, 

between  Ponthierville  and  Nyangwe  . 


SOL-RCE  PAGE 

Photograph  by  Grenfell         .       .  270 

>>           II           .1               •       •  272 

Sketch  by  Sir  Harry  Johnston       .  273 

Photograph  by  William  Forfeitt     .  275 

Photograph  by  Rev.  K.  J.  Pettersen  276 
Photograph  by  Commander  Purey- 

Cust,  R.N.                .           .       .  277 

Sketch  by  Sir  Harry  Johnston        .  278 


■  279 

,,  ,,  ,,  .  280 

Photograph  by  Rev.  K.  J.  Pettersen  281 


Photo  by  William  Forfeitt      .       .  284 

Sketch  by  Sir  Harry  Johnston       .  285 

Photograph  by  Grenfell         .       .  286 

Sketch  by  Sir  Harry  Johnston       .  288 

•  289 

Photograph  by  William  Forfeitt     .  290 

.,            „            „                 •  291 

M                 •  292 

>.                          .,                 •  293 

Sketch  by  Sir  Harry  Johnston       .  294 

M                          .,                 •  295 

Photograph  by  Grenfell         .       .  297 

Photo  by  Wm.  Forfeitt           .       .  301 

M  ,,  •  • 

Photograph  by  Grenfell         .        .  305 

Photo  by  William  Forfeitt      .       .  306 

Photograph  by  Rev.  J.  Howell      .  307 

308 
309 
3H 

Photograph  by  Grenfell         .       .  312 

.       •  3'3 


Photograph  by  Rev.  H.  Sutton-Smith  314 


XX  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


NO.  TITLE 

172.  On  Lake  Baiig'weulu 

173-  Johnston  Falls,  Luapula  River 

174.  Female  of  the  Red  Forest  Buffalo  {Bos 

caffer  iiainis),  from  the  forest  region  of 
South-Central  Congoland  (shot  on  one 
of  Grenfell's  expeditions) 

175.  Red    River    Hogf    from  South-Central 

Cong^oland         .  ... 

1 76.  An  Arab  trader  in  North-East  Cong-oland 

(originally  from  Zanzibar) 

177.  A  wooden  whistle  from  the  west  Tangan- 

yika coast  .  ... 

178.  Eiitropius  g'renfelli,  a  fish  of  the  Upper 

Congo  discovered  by  Grenfell.  (This 
is  a  much  smaller  form  than  the  extra- 
ordinary E.  laticeps) 

179.  The  post  of  Avakubi,  looking  down  the 

Aruwimi  River,  across  the  island  in 
front  of  the  station.  (It  was  near 
Avakubi  that  Grenfell  wished  to  found 
a  station)  .  ... 

180.  Rev.  W.  H.  Stapleton's  mission  house 

at  Sargent  Station,  Yakusu 

181.  A  chapel  built  by  native  Mission  boys 

182.  Two   Bambute    Pygmies,  Azimbamboli 

and  Abumbuku  .  ... 

183.  The  village  of  the  Banal3a  colony  of 

time-expired  soldiers  of  the  Congo 
State    .  .  ... 

184.  Aruwimi  River  above  the  lowest  rapids  . 

185.  Pango  rapids  of  Aruwimi 

186.  A  village  of  the  Bwela  countr}'  behind 

Bopoto.  .  ... 

187.  A  village  of  the  interior  behind  Bopoto. 

(Note  ant-hill  in  the  background  with 
man  standing  on  top) 

188.  The  Bongo  or  Broad-horned  Tragelaph 

(from  a  photograph  of  a  specimen 
killed  on  the  north-eastern  Congo).  The 
brightly  contrasted  redand  whitestriped 
skin  of  this  splendid  beast  is  much  in 
favour  amongst  the  natives  of  the 
Forest  region  for  bandoliers,  girdles, 
etc.,  vieing  in  their  favour  with  that  of 
the  Okapi  .  ... 

189.  The  finest  specimen  extant  of  a  male 

Okapi,  set  up  in  the  Paris  Natural 
History  Museum  :  from  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Avakubi 

190.  An  adult  male  of  the  black  Forest  Pig 

[Hylorliwnis)  of  North-East  Congoland 
and  Equatorial  East  Africa  :  from  one 
of  the  specimens  obtained  by  Baron 
Maurice  de  Rothschild 

191.  A  chimpanzi  from  the  Bateke  country 

north  of  Stanley  Pool :  photograph  by 
Grenfell  at  Brazzaville 


SOURCE  PAGE 
Photograph    by    Captain  Poulett 
Weatherley  .  .       •  3'5 

,.  .,  316 


Photograph  by  Grenfell         .       .  320 

>,  •        •  321 

->  ■       ■  322 

From  a  specimen  in  the  Tervueren 

Museum     .  ...  323 

Photographed    from    specimen  in 

British  Museum       .  .       .  324 


Photograph  hy  Grenfell         .  .  327 

>,           >.              •  •  329 

M          i»          )»             •  •  33^ 

,,       •  •  332 

i>          )>          !i            •  •  334 

>i          ti          i>            •  ■  335 

•  .  336 

Photograph  by  William  Forfeitt  .  338 

•  339 


•  341 

Photograph  lent  by  M.  Trouessart, 

Natural  Historj'  Museum,  Paris.  342 

Photograph  lent  bv  Baron  Maurice 

de  Rothschild  .  .       .  343 

Photograph  by  Grenfell         .       .  345 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


xxi 


NO.  TITLE 

192.  Gnathoncinus  ibis,  a  fish  of  the  Miibangi 

River  .  .  ... 

193.  A  thief  s  weapon  from  Banalj-a,  Aruvvimi : 

used  for  stealing'  goats,  to  simulate 
a  leopard's  claws,  and  sometimes  a 
woman's  breast  is  torn  off  by  this  as  a 
punishment         .  .  .  . 

194.  Typical  Forest  negroes  of  the  Aruwimi 

(one  of  them  a  Mission  boy) 

195.  Basoko  people       .  ... 

196.  A  native  chief  from  the  Bwela  district 

behind  Bopoto  and  his  little  son  (a 
scholar  at  the  Mission  school).  Note: 
Chief  is  wearing  a  bandolier  of  the 
Bongo  Tragelaph  skin 

197.  Examples  of  the  Mongwandi  tribe  from 

the  upper  Mongala  River.  (The  Mong- 
wandi are  allied  to  the  Sango  of  the 
Mubangi)  .  ... 

198.  A  tom-tom  drum  from  the  Baloi  country, 

lower  Mubangi  .  ... 

199.  Chrysichthys  ornatus,  a  fish  of  the  Mu- 

bangi and  northern  Congo :  collected  by 
Rev.  J.  H.  Weeks,  B.M.S. 

200.  A  harp  from  the  Sango  people  of  Yakoma, 

on  the  upper  Mubangi 

201.  Head  of  a  male  black  Forest  Pig  {Hylo- 

choerus)  .  ... 

202.  Small  twin  receptacle  from  the  lower 

Mubangi  ;  black,  varnished  with  copal 

203.  A  photograph  of  George  Grenfell,  taken 

January  1906,  six  months  before  his 
death    .  .  ... 

204.  The  house  at  Yalemba  where  Grenfell 

lived  prior  to  his  death 

205.  Grenfell's  grave  at  Basoko  . 

206.  An  Arab  camp,  Lomami  River,  where  the 

incidents  referred  to  by  Grenfell  (on 
p.  375)  occurred  .  ... 

207.  Rubber  victims.    Natives  brought  to  the 

Baptist  Mission  for  treatment  after 
outrages  by  agents  of  concessiomiaire 
companies  .  ... 

208.  Grenfell's  signature 

2og.  The  surroundings  of  Grenfell's  house  at 
Bolobo  .  ,  ... 

210.  Bolobo  chiefs  Mungulu  and  Mukoko 

211.  Specimen  of  page  from  Grenfell's  diary 

written  in  pencil  .  ... 

212.  Ibaka,   the   principal   chief  of  Bolobo 

in  the  'eighties  of  the  last  century  : 
sketched  by  Sir  Harry  Johnston  in 
1883     .  .  .  .  . 

213-  Ngoie,  a  chief  of  Bolobo  (1894),  much 
referred  to  in  Grenfell's  diaries  (see 
pp.  388-9)  .  ... 

214.  B.M.S.  Mission  church  at  Bolobo  . 

215.  Baptist  Mission  church,  San  Salvador 


SOURCE  PAGE 

Photograph   lent  by   Mr.  G.  A. 

Boulenger  .             ...  349 

Photograph  by  the  Baptist  Mission  351 

Photograph  by  Grenfell         .       .  353 

i>          >>          II            •       •  355 

»>         »>         »>            •      •  357 

Photograph  by  William  Forfeit!     .  360 

Photograph  lent  by  Mr.  Torday    .  361 

Photograph   lent  by   Mr.    G.  A. 

Boulenger .             ...  362 

.  367 

Photograph  lent  by  Baron  Maurice 

de  Rothschild          .           .       .  369 

Photo  lent  by  Mr.  Torday      .       .  371 

.  372 

Photograph  by  Rev.  J.  Howell      .  373 

Photograph  by  William  Forfeitt    .  374 

Photograph  by  Grenfell         ,       .  375 

Photograph  by  a  Baptist  Missionary  379 
  381 

Photograph  by  Grenfell         .       .  383 

.1                        .       •  385 

.       .  387 

.  389 

Photograph  by  Grenfell         .       .  390 

>>          >i          1 1             •       ■  393 

Photograph  by  Rev.  Thos.  Lewis  .  394 


xxii 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


NO.  TITLE  SOURCE  PAGE 

216.  Henrique  de  Carvalho  Station  in  Eastern 

Angola:  founded  in  1884  to  protect  Port- 

ug'uese  traders  with  the  Lunda  country    Photograph  by  Grenfell  .       .  396 

217.  Captain  Coquilhat  and  Matabwiki,  Chief 

of  Bangahi  {circa  1890)     ...,,,,„  .       .  400 

218.  A  big  canoe  on  the  Upper  Congo,  of  the 

type  that  used  to  carr}'  slaves  from  the 

Lulongo  to  the  Mubangi  .       .  401 

219.  Ngombe  people  between  the  north  Congo 
:        .  andthetributariesoftheMongalaRiver: 

-  -        much  given  to  cannibalism  until  recently    Photograph  by  William  Forfeitt     .  404 

220.  A  mask  worn  by  members  of  a  Baluba 

brotherhood  in  ceremonial  dances :  Tor- 
day  Collection    .  ...    Photograph  by  Torday  .       .  407 

221.  The  Atlantic  aspect  of  the  beach  at 

Banana  Point,  Congo  mouth.  (Banana 
Point,  the  main  seaport  of  the  Belgian 
Congo,  was  not  acquired  by  the  State 

until  1S85)  .  ...    Photograph  by  Grenfell         .  .410 

222.  Vivi  in  1882,  from  a  sketch  by  Sir  Harry 

Johnston.  (\'ivi  Station  was  founded 
by  Stanley  in  1879  at  the  highest  point 
of  navigabilit}'  of  the  Lower  Congo. 
It  was  abandoned  in  favour  of  Matadi, 

on  the  opposite  bank,  in  1886)      .        .    Sketch  by  Sir  Harry  Johnston       .  411 

223.  The  Post  Office  at  Boma     .  .       .    Photograph  by  Grenfell         .  .414 

224.  First  consignment  of  ivory  from  above 

Stanlej'  Pool       .  .  ,,  .       ,  415 

225.  Railway  Station,  Matadi,  looking  down 

river     .  .  .  .       .  418 

226.  Sefu,.  son  of  Tipu-Tipu,  and  his  repre- 

sentative in  Congoland,  with  the  two 
Belgian  officers  who  were  subsequently 
killed  :  photo  taken  by  the  Rev.  William 

Forfeitt  in  1891   .  ...    Photo  by  William  Forfeitt      .       .  425 

227.  Facsimile  of  a  sketch  map  by  Baron 

Dhanis,  presented  by  him  to  Grenfell 

in  1890  .  .  ....  .  ...  428 

228.  Congo  State   station   of  Basoko,  near 

confluence  of  Aruwimi       .  .       .     Photograph  by  Grenfell         .       .  432 

229.  Red-bronze  coloured  pot  of  the  Abango- 

bango  people  (Basoko  country,  Aruwimi 

confluence)  .  .  .       .  '        „  ,>  •       •  434 

230.  Rev.  Lawson  Forfeitt's  house  near  Matadi, 

Lower  Congo.     Glave  after  crossing 
Africa  reached  a  neighbouring  house  of 
'  •         Mr.  Forfeitt's  and  died  there        .       .    Photograph  by  William  Forfeitt     .  438 

231.  American    Baptist    Mission    church  at 

Stanley  Pool       .  ...    Photograph  by  Grenfell         .       .  439 

232.  Rubber  and  ivory  at  State  depot,  ;SIobeka, 

Upper  Congo     .  ...„,,.,  •       •  44^ 

233.  The  Congo  State  station  at  Nouvelle 

Anvers,  Bangala  •       •  449 

234.  An    elephant's    tusk    from    the  upper 

Mubangi,  pared  down  and  pierced  to 
form  an  immense  ivory  flute.  A  good 
deal  of  the  ivory  first  exported  from  the 

Congo  was  in  this  form     .  .       .    Photograph  lent  by  Torday    .       .  453 

235.  A   wooding    post    for   State  steamers, 

Upper  Congo     .  ...    Photograph  by  Grenfell         .       .  454 

236.  Lumps  of  india-rubber  as  brought  in  hy 

n^ltives  of  the  Upper  Congo        .       .    Photo  by  Baptist  Mission       .       .  460 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


xxiii 


NO.  TITLE 

237.  Bolumbi,  a  fireman  on  S. S.  Goodwill. 

A  typical  Bangala  type 

238.  State  landingf-stage  at  Bomwaiiga,  with 

State  soldiers  drawn  up  in  rank  as 
guard  of  honour 

239.  Native  soldier  g-uarding:  women  hostages 

in  chains  .  ... 

240.  The  "  chicote  "  or  whip  made  of  twisted 

hippo  hide,  which  figures  so  much  in 
Congo  history.  It  is  not  unlike  the 
hurhash  of  the  Sudan,  but  this  particu- 
lar form  of  whip  and  its  name — chicote 
■ — was  invented  by  the  Portuguese 
slave-traders  of  the  eighteenth  century 

241.  An  American  mission  station  at  Bolengi, 

near  the  mouth  of  the  Ruki-Busira 
River,  whence  much  of  the  information 
was  transmitted  by  Sjobloni  and  others 
concerning-  the  maladministration  of 
the  Crown  Domain 

242.  Girl  pupilsat  theBaptist  Mission,  Yakusu, 

northern  Congo  .  ... 

243.  Matadi,  from  the  Baptist  Mission  Station, 

New  Underbill    .  ... 

244.  The  Congo  State  post  of  Bumba,  northern 

Congo,  at  the  edge  of  the  Buja  territory 
245  Two  Bangala  soldiers  in  the  service  of 
the  Congo  State.  These  men  are  off 
duty  and  in  "mufti."  The  Bangala 
are  the  best,  most  loyal,  and  most 
intelligent  soldiers  in  the  State  forces  . 

246.  A  street  in  Matadi,  the  most  important 

commercial  centre  on  the  Lower  Congo, 
starting-point  of  the  Congo  Railway  . 

247.  A  train  on  the  Congo  Railway 

248.  Railway  station  on  the  line  from  Matadi 

to  Stanley  Pool  .  ... 

249.  Distichodiis  sex/asciafns,  a  fish  from  the 

cataract  Congo  :  collected  by  Baptist 
missionaries       .  ... 


SOURCE 

Photograph  by  Grenfell 


PAGE 
462 


Photograph  by  Baptist  Mission     .  464 


.  467 


Photograph  by  Grenfell 


469 
472 


Photograph  by  the  Baptist  Mission  474 
Photograph  by  Grenfell         .       .  479 

Photograph  by  William  Forfeitt     .  483 


487 
488 

489 


Photograph  lent   by   Mr.    G.  A. 
Boulenger .  ...  492 


MAPS  IN  VOL.  I 

A  Map  of  the  Congo  Regions  published  at  Amsterdam  in  1733,  etc.      .  .       .  79 

Stanley  Pool,  from  a  survey  by  the  Rev.  George  Grenfell       .  ...  loi 

Confluence  of  the  Congo  and  Mubangi,  from  a  survey  by  the  Rev.  George  Grenfell 

To  face  page  106 

Stanley's  general  idea  of  the  geography  of  the  Congo  basin  in  1885,  before  the 

results  of  Grenfell's  and  Wissmann's  journeys  were  made  known  .       .  130 

Sketch  Map  showing  the  principal  journeys  of  the  Rev.  George  Grenfell  in  the  Congo 

region,  etc.  .  .  .  .  .  ...  131 

The  Sketch-survey  of  the  Portuguese-Congo  Boundary,  etc.,  signed  by  the  three 

Commissioners     .  .  .  .  .  '  To  face  page  220 

Map  of  the  Lower  Congo,  showing  the  Cataract  Region  :  by  J.  \V.  Addison 

To  face  page  270 

The  River  Congo  at  its  northernmost  bend,  from  a  survey  by  the  Rev.  George 

Grenfell  .  .  .  .  .  To  face  page  290 

Sketch  Map  to  show  Recent  Troubles  (Slave  trade  wars,  atrocities,  etc.),  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Natives  of  Central  Africa,  since  1885       .  ...  443 
Concessions  Map,  showing  areas  of  Congo  State  withdrawn  from  free  commerce  .  477 
Sketch  Map  to  show  navigability  by  steamers  of  the  Congo  and  its  affluents  .       .  495 
Western  Equatorial  Africa  :  by  J.  W.  Addison            .  .    End  of  Volume 


GEORGE  GRENFELL 

AND  THE  CONGO 


CHAPTER  I 
GEORGE  GRENFELL 

GEORGE  GRENFELL,  the  central  figure  of  this 
book,  was  a  Cornishman,  of  the  same  stock,  it  is 
said,  from  which  are  descended  other  Grenfells  who 
have  become  celebrated  as  the  proprietors  of  iron  foundries 
and  coal  mines,  or  as  athletes  and  military  commanders.  It 
is  possible,  however,  that  as  the  events  of  the  last  twenty- 
five  years  recede  from  us  into  history  no  Grenfell  will  have 
left  a  more  famous  name  than  the  missionary-explorer,  who  was 
born  on  the  21st  of  August  1849  at  Trannack  Mill,  a  house 
situated  on  his  grandfather's  property  in  the  parish  of  San- 
creed,  about  four  miles  from  Penzance  in  the  direction  of 
Land's  End. 

Although  of  Cornish  birth,  however,  Grenfell,  like  so 
many  English  missionaries  to  Africa  and  Asia  during  the  last 
hundred  years,  was  by  residence  and  associations  a  man  of 
the  Midlands  :  his  boyhood  and  early  manhood  were  passed 
at  Birmingham,  where  he  was  educated  at  King  Edward's 
School.  When  scarcely  more  than  a  youth  Grenfell  became 
strongly  attracted  towards  missionary  work,  following  with 
especial  interest  that  which  was  being  done  by  the  Baptist 
missionaries  in  the  Cameroons. 

He  was  apprenticed  at  the  age  of  fifteen  to  a  Birming- 
ham firm  (Messrs.  Scholefield,  Goodman,  and  Sons)  dealing 
in  hardware  and  machinery,  and  this  apprenticeship  always 
served  him   in   good  stead,   having   made   him  a  practical 

I.  B 


2      GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


mechanic,  wonderfully  clever  at  coping  with  all  the  difficul- 
ties that  the  machinery  of  a  steamer  can  meet  with  in 
navigating  African  rivers.  His  interest  in  missionary  work, 
however,  led  him  to  study  at  the  Baptist  College  of  Bristol. 

At  Bristol,  Grenfell  made  the  acquaintance  of  Alfred  Saker, 
a  veteran  in  the  mission  field  of  the  Cameroons,  the  founder, 
one  might  say,  of  all  that  is  best  and  most  permanent  in 
the  foreign  civilization  of  the  Cameroons  people.  Saker  was 
paying  a  brief  visit  to  England  in  1874.  The  accounts  he 
gave  of  his  work  decided  Grenfell  to  return  with  him,  and 
accordingly  in  that  year — 1874 — George  Grenfell  commenced 
his  career  as  an  African  missionary  and  explorer  in  the  Duala 
communities  on  the  estuary  of  the  Cameroons  River. 

In  1876  he  returned  to  England,  married  his  first  wife  (Miss 
Hawkes),  and  made  his  home  with  her  at  Akwa  town,  on  the 
Cameroons  River.  Here,  after  a  year's  residence,  his  wife 
died  in  childbirth,  and  Grenfell  moved  in  1877  t^^^  mission 
settlement  of  Victoria  on  Ambas  Bay.  Between  1875  and 
1878  he  explored  a  good  deal  of  the  Cameroons  coast  region, 
with  the  results  which  are  described  in  other  chapters.  He  also 
visited  parts  of  the  island  of  Fernando  P6.  Twice  in  1878 
he  was  [with  a  colleague,  T.  J.  Comber]  despatched  by  the 
Baptist  Missionary  Society  to  explore  the  region  of  the 
Lower  Conoo  with  the  view  of  foundinor  a  chain  of  mission 
stations  which  might  reach  eventually  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Cono-o  ria-ht  across  Africa  to  the  Indian  Ocean.  When  this 
first  attempt  to  reach  Stanley  Pool  was  foiled  by  the  hostility 
of  the  natives,  Grenfell  returned  to  the  Cameroons,  and  for  a 
short  time  left  the  service  of  the  Mission.  Whilst  in  the 
Cameroons  (1879)  he  married  his  second  wife  (Miss  Edgerley), 
who  was  of  a  West  Indian  family  that  had  long  been  settled 
either  at  Fernando  P6  or  at  Ambas  Bay.  Invited  to  re-enter  the 
service  of  the  Mission  to  carry  out  the  scheme  of  Congo  enter- 
prise for  which  Mr.  Robert  Arthington,  Sir  Charles  Wathen, 
and  others  had  found  the  preliminary  expenses,  Grenfell  first 
established  himself  at  Musuko  on  the  Lower  Congo  (in  1880) 
to  organize  the  transport  to  San  Salvador,  and  then,  in  1881, 
returned  to  England  to  superintend  the  completing  of  the 
Society's  first  missionary  steamer  on  the  Upper  Congo — the 
Peace  (a  gift  from  Robert  Arthington).  As  soon  as  the  plan 
of  this  vessel  had  been  decided  on  he  returned  to  the  Congo 
in  1883,  and  from  that  time  onwards  his  career  as  a  missionary- 
explorer  was  never  interrupted  (except  by  occasional  brief 
rests  in  England)  until  his  death  on  the  ist  of  July  1906 


GEORGE  GRENFELL  3 

at  Basoko,  near  the  junction  of  the  Aruwuni  with  the  Upper 
Congo.  ^ 


3.  GRENFELL  IN  1 878,  STARTING  WITH  THE  FIRST  li.M.S.  MISSION  TO 
SAN  SALVADOR,  KINGDOM  OF  KONGO 


'  For  the  convenience  of  readers  I  append  a  concise  summary  of  Grenfell's 
comings  and  goings  to  and  from  Africa,  and  the  Congo  in  particular  :  — 


Appointed  by  the  B. M.S.  as  a  missionary   .       .       .  Nov.  loth  1874 

Sailed  for  Cameroons  (with  Saker)      ....  Dec.  19th  1874 

Arrived  in  England  for  first  furlough  ....  End  of  1875 
Second  departure  for  Cameroons  (with  his  first  wife, 

lice  Hawkes,  who  died  early  in  January  1878)  .       .  Feb.  26th  1876 

Left  Cameroons  for  Congo— first  visit .       .       .       .  January-March  1878 

Second  visit  to  the  Congo   May-October  1878 

Married  at  Victoria,  Cameroons,  to  his  second  wife 

(w'<?  Edgerley)   Dec.  1879 

Visited  Fernando  P6  (also  in  1901)     ....  Nov.  1880 

Returned  to  Baptist  Mission,  Congo    ....  Dec.  1880 
Arrived  in  England  from   Congo — first  time  from 

Congo  — second  furlough  from  Africa       .       .       .  Dec.  1881 

Left  England  for  Congo   Dec.  9th  1882 

Arrived  in  England  from  Congo— second  time  from 

Congo— third  time  from  Africa        ....  Feb.  1887 

Left  England  for  Congo   Sept.  1887 

Arrived  in  England  from  Congo — third  time  from 

Congo — fourth  furlough  from  Africa        .       .       .  Dec.  1890 

Left  England  for  Congo   Nov.  3rd  1891 

Commissioner  for  King  Leopold  (Lunda  Expedition) .  May  1892  to  June  1893 
Arrived  in  England  from  Congo— fourth  time  from 

Congo — fifth  furlough  from  Africa   ....  May  1900 

Left  England  for  Congo  (visiting  Fernando  P6  in  Oct.)  Sept.  1901 

Died  at  Basoko    ........  July  i  1906 


4      GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Grenfell's  appearance  at  various  stages  in  his  career  from 
1878  onwards  is  sufificiently  illustrated  by  the  occasional  por- 
traits which  appear  in  this  book.  He  was  about  five  feet  six 
inches  in  height,  and  except  in  the  last  years  of  his  life,  when 
the  gradual  effects  of  repeated  fevers  aged  him  prematurely, 
was  of  lithe,  athletic  build.  His  characteristics  have  been  most 
fitly  summed  up  by  the  Belgian  geographer,  A.  J.  Wauters  : — ^ 

"  George  Grenfell,  who  has  just  been  struck  down  by  death  much 
too  soon,  is  one  of  the  most  noble  figures  in  the  history  of  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Congo  Independent  State.  .  .  . 

"  Grenfell  explored  and  evangelised  Central  Africa  after  the  fashion 
of  Dr.  Livingstone,  whom  he  resembled  in  his  medium  stature,  his  kind, 
calm  demeanour,  his  native  meekness,  and  his  enquiring  and  open  turn 
of  mind.  He  brought  many  tribes  of  the  Upper  Congo  in  contact  with 
the  White  man  who  before  his  coming  had  never  appeared  amongst  them. 
He  came  as  a  man  of  peace,  winning  the  confidence  of  the  savage  natives 
by  his  patience,  tact,  and  cleverness,  taking  care  not  to  respond  by 
violence  to  the  brutish  diffidence  of  these  primitive  beings.  At  the  same 
time  that  he  opened  the  way  for  the  poHtical  agents  of  the  State  he 
aroused  the  curiosity  of  the  natives  in  favour  of  the  Europeans, 
thereby  facilitating  the  task  of  those  that  followed.  He  fulfilled  this 
mission  for  twenty-five  years,  as  a  pioneer,  with  as  much  humanity  as 
success.    Therefore  all  honour  is  due  to  his  name. 

"  When  we  consider  that  the  conquest  of  new  lands  is  so  often 
accompanied,  in  spite  of  all,  by  abuses,  excesses,  and  by  guilty  practices 
and  doings,  condemned  by  civilisation,  it  is  refreshing  to  be  able  to 
recall  the  remembrance  of  this  good  man,  a  missionary  in  the  purest 
sense  of  the  word  ;  who  succeeded,  as  the  messenger  of  peace,  in 
irradiating  the  immense  basin  of  the  Congo  by  his  itineraries  and  in 
endowing  its  geography  with  fixed  points,  carefully  determined  b\' 
astronomical  observations." 

In  another  part  of  the  same  article  M.  Wauters  writes  : — 

"  Stanley  revealed  the  course  of  the  Congo  from  Nyangwe  to  Boma, 
Wissmann  discovered  the  Kasai,  and  Wolf  the  Sankuru.  It  is  to 
Grenfell  that  we  owe  the  earliest  reconnoitring  of  most  of  the  other 
navigable  tributaries  of  the  Congo.  During  one  of  his  first  explora- 
tions, commenced  in  October  1884,  he  penetrated  the  Mubangi,  the 
Mongala,  the  Itimbiri  (Rubi),  and  the  Lomami.  In  January  1885  he 
ascended  the  Mubangi  as  far  as  the  Zongo  Falls.  ...  In  the  same 
year  he  explored  the  Ruki  and  the  Lulongo,  accompanied  by  the 
German  Captain  von  Francois.  In  December  1886,  with  the  German 
doctor  Mense  as  travelling  companion,  he  explored  the  course  of  the 
Kwango.  .  .  .  Finally,  he  completed  by  a  reconnoitring  expedition  on 
the  Kwango  (and  into  the  Lunda  countries)  the  cycle  of  great  dis- 
coveries which  he  had  just  made,  revealing  the  existence  of  peoples 

^  In  an  appreciative  obituary  notice  in  the  Mouvement  Geographique,  loth  March 
1907.  M.  Wauters  is  Editor  of  that  journal,  and  also  Secretary-General  of  the 
Compagnie  du  Chemin  de  Fer  du  Congo. 


GEORGE  GRENFELL 


5 


established  along  the  banks  of  a  marvellous  network  of  free  waterways, 
a  network  which  doubles  the  economic  value  of  the  Congo  itself  His 
Lunda  Expedition  at  the  time  infused  greater  energy  and  a  deeper 
conviction  into  those  whose  gospel  was  then  the  construction  of  the 
Matadi  Railway.  .  .  .  The  most  sensational  of  his  discoveries  was 
that  of  the  lower  Mubangi,  which  gave  rise  to  our  hypothesis/  whereby 
we  identified  this  new  river  as  the  lower  course  of  Schweinfurth's 
Welle.  .  .  ." 

"  The  Congo  Independent  State  never  had  a  more  faithful  auxiliary 
nor  a  more  reliable  adviser  than  George  Grenfell,  who,  under  all  circum- 
stances, gave  proof  of  his  keenest  sympathy  with  the  efforts  of  the 
Belgians  on  the  Congo.  On  many  occasions  the  Sovereign  appealed  on 
behalf  of  the  State  to  his  devotion  and  experience,  and  to  the  authority 
he  enjoyed.  In  1891-1892  he  accepted  the  difficult  mission  of  protect- 
ing the  State's  interests  in  the  question  of  defining  the  boundaries 
along  the  Congo-Portuguese  frontier  in  Lunda.  Later  on,  when  the 
first  charges  against  the  Congo  State  assumed  concrete  form  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  he  consented  to  accept  the  office  of  Secretary  of 
the  Committee  for  the  Protection  of  the  Natives,  which  was  formed  by 
the  Congo  Government.  Rut  the  exclusively  ornamental  character  of 
this  institution  soon  disheartened  him,  and  recently,  after  the  arrival  of 
the  Committee  of  Enquiry  at  the  Congo,  he  took  sides  against  the 
policy  of  the  Independent  State  in  regard  to  the  natives." 

Grenfell,  it  might  be  mentioned,  from  1894  onwards  held 
an  honorary  position  on  the  Upper  Congo  as  British  Pro- 
consul. He  was  made  a  Chevalier  of  two  Belgian  orders  (that 
of  Leopold  and  of  the  Lion  of  Africa),  and  by  the  King  of 
Portugal  was  created  a  Commander  of  the  Order  of  Christ.  In 
1886  he  was  awarded  the  Gold  Medal  of  the  Royal  Geo- 
graphical Society.  His  magnificent  cartographical  work  enabled 
the  Royal  Geographical  Society  of  Great  Britain  to  publish 
their  great  map  of  the  Congo  in  sections  in  1902. 

All  these  years  between  1875  and  1906  he  was  making 
copious  notes  in  his  journals  in  a  very  minute  caligraphy  on  the 
people,  landscapes,  geology,  climate,  and  animals  of  the  coun- 
tries he  visited  ;  or  keeping  records  of  high  and  low  water,  of 
rainfall,  temperature,  etc.  ;  was  studying  languages,  and  record- 
ing odd  scraps  of  vocabularies  (of  the  highest  philological 
interest)  on  half-sheets  of  exercise  paper. 

Some  of  Grenfell's  most  illuminatingr  notes  on  the  Congo 
basm  are  written  with  a  hard  pencil  on  the  edges  of  his  rough 
surveys.  On  a  sort  of  exercise  paper  (in  earlier  times)  he 
would  plot  his  day's  journey  up  some  river  or  along  the  coast  of 
a  lake,  and  on  the  back  of  the  sketch-map  or  on  its  sides  would 
inscribe  words  from  native  lanoruaoes  and  notes  as  to  the 

^  Namely,  that  of  Mr.  A.  J.  Wauters. 


6      GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


animals,  plants,  and  people  met  with.  While  it  has  been  a 
congenial  task  for  the  author  of  this  book  to  gather  up  all 
these  fragments  (some  of  them  of  unique  value,  since  they  deal 
with  vanished  phases  of  the  Congo  basin),  it  has  been  a  work 
often  of  extreme  difficulty  and  patience.  Something  not  far 
short  of  one  hundred  note-books  or  survey-sheets  have  had  to 
be  examined  carefully,  passed  in  review  with  a  magnifying 
glass  very  often.  There  are  gaps  in  the  series.  But  these  are 
partly  filled  by  the  valuable  material  concerning  the  Congo, 
Cameroons  and  Fernando  P6  derived  from  his  private  letters. 
The  author  has  also  made  use  of  Grenfell's  official  reports  to 
the  Baptist  Missionary  Society,  his  communications  to  the 
Royal  Geographical  Society,  and  the  information  he  collected 
for  the  Conoo  State. 

It  is  possible  that  had  Grenfell  lived  he  would  have  gathered 
together  all  this  material  himself,  and  have  written  a  better 
book  on  the  Congo  than  that  which  is  now  placed  before  the 
reader.  But  this  is  uncertain.  Grenfell  from  all  the  notes  that 
survive  him  seems  to  have  dedicated  his  life  once  and  for  all 
to  Africa,  and  never  made  any  appeal  for  leisure  or  alluded  to 
any  project  of  spending  his  declining  life  in  England.  I  have 
known  not  a  few  hard-worked  missionaries,  male  and  female,  who 
very  legitimately  kept  at  the  back  of  their  minds  an  Indian  sum- 
mer of  their  lives  which  was  to  be  spent  "in  dear  old  England," 
in  the  sweet  English  country,  in  that  best  of  earthly  climates — 
that  of  England — in  some  quiet  village  of  healthy-faced  country 
people,  where  there  were  no  tornadoes,  no  blizzards,  no  fevers, 
no  unbearable  sunshine,  no  four  months'  frost,  no  cloud-bursts  of 
intolerable  rain  ;  no  noxious  insects,  no  noisy  savages,  no  bad 
food  badly  cooked,  and  no  isolation  from  the  world's  news.  For 
Grenfell,  however,  there  was  no  such  goal.  Possibly  his  diaries 
and  such  private  letters  as  I  have  seen  may  not  reveal  all  that 
grew  up  in  the  man's  mind  ;  but  so  far  as  he  sketched  out  a 
future  beyond  1906  it  seems  to  have  lain  in  the  hope  that  the 
Congo  Independent  State  would  recede  from  its  harsh  determin- 
ation to  bar  the  progress  of  the  Baptist  Mission  eastwards,  and 
permit  Grenfell  to  fulfil  the  object  for  which  Robert  Arthington 
had  given  and  bequeathed  so  much  money — the  carrying  of  the 
chain  of  British  mission  stations  (of  the  Baptist  or  any  other 
denomination)  right  across  Africa  from  the  mouth  of  the  Congo 
to  the  Indian  Ocean.  That  three  hundred  miles  which  lay 
between  the  northernmost  bend  of  the  Congo  and  the  western- 
most post  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  in  Uganda,  was  the 
gap  that  Grenfell  yearned  to  bridge.    This  project  was  the  sole 


:^  .^Ut,  /7.,  ^^^^  /l.J,'  (f- 

X^t-^    /i-^ ^^^(/  C^^.ji^   .  a.  ^-t^y-S  ^>7r-r>-^  ^-(rrh. 
/E-<««.<t»-^  "^^  /t-yli/  /t^.^  /£^e   '^71^  2  . 

-'^^'^  ^^^^  y-  /^^^vL*t- 

4.  A  SPECLMEN  PAGE  OF  GRKNFELL'S  NOTES  ON  A  JOURNEY  UP  THE 
LULONGO-MARINGA  RIVER  IN   1885  :   lUSTANCES  IN  HOURS 


8      GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


ambition  of  which  he  was  baulked  in  dying  at  the  age  of  fifty- 
seven  at  the  mouth  of  that  Aruwimi  which  he  was  grudgingly 
permitted  to  ascend,  but  on  whose  banks  the  Congo  Independent 
State  refused  him  a  settlement  of  even  a  few  square  yards. 

The  Congo  State  whose  creation  and  advent  he  had  saluted 
with  more  friendly  anticipations  than  perhaps  were  accorded  to 
it  by  any  other  pioneer ;  whom  he  had  served  gratuitously  when- 
ever it  invoked  his  help,^  and  championed  (with  a  desire  for  fair 
play)  until  some  of  his  younger  colleagues  almost  quarrelled 
with  him,  because  it  seemed  to  him  in  the  'eighties  and  the 
early  'nineties  the  ideal  form  of  government — an  International 
Utopia  knowing  no  race  jealousies  between  Briton  and  Belgian, 
Frenchman  and  German,  Croat  and  Hungarian,  Swede  and 
Norwegian  :  that  State  used  the  strength  which  was  inadequate 
to  put  down  atrocities  to  baulk  Grenfell  of  the  innocent  accom- 
plishment of  his  life's  work,  and  without  exaggeration  he  may 
be  said  to  have  died  a  disheartened  and  disillusioned  man. 

Grenfell,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  untouched  extracts  of  his 
diaries  and  letters,  wrote  terse,  descriptive  English.  But  he 
dealt  almost  equally  well  with  French,  and  carried  on  a  good 
deal  of  his  correspondence  with  the  State  officials  in  that 
language.  He  could  speak  Portuguese,  but  generally  wrote  to 
the  Portuguese  officials  in  French.  He  accuses  himself  occa- 
sionally of  not  being  fluent  in  any  of  the  native  languages 
of  the  Congo,  and  in  consequence  seems  to  have  hesitated 
sometimes  to  give  public  addresses  in  the  vernacular.  Possibly 
that  was  so  ;  but  his  many  notes  on  the  tongues  of  the  Congo 
and  their  mutual  affinities  show  him  to  have  been  no  mean 
philologist.  As  a  surveyor  he  needs  no  praise  from  the 
present  writer.  He  was  exquisitely  neat  in  his  draughtsman- 
ship. Much  of  his  own  map-drawing — lettering  and  all — could 
be  reproduced  photographically,  and  would  seem  the  work  of  a 
practised  cartographer.  His  beautiful  photographs,  which  form 
the  best  illustrations  in  this  book,  speak  for  themselves  ;  but 
they  are  remarkable,  because  many  of  them  were  taken  at  the 
end  of  the  'seventies  and  in  the  early  'eighties,  when  photo- 
graphy in  the  field  was  a  matter  of  much  greater  difficulty  than 
it  is  at  the  present  day. 

Into  his  private  life  the  present  writer  enters  little  more 

>  Grenfell's  emoluments  from  the  Baptist  Mission  during  his  long  term  of  service 
(practically  from  1874  to  1879  and  1880  to  1906)  were  limited  to  an  annual  allowance 
of  ^180.  When  he  entered  the  service  of  King  Leopold  as  commissioner  from  1892 
to  1893,  the  King,  by  arrangement  with  Grenfell,  paid  a  sum  of  about  ^700  to  the 
Mission  to  meet  the  cost  of  replacing  Grenfell's  services.  So  far  as  Grenfell  was  con- 
cerned he  merely  continued  to  receive  as  before  his  annual  allowance  of  /180  from 
the  B.M.S. 


GEORGE  GRENFELL 


9 


than  is  necessary  to  give  a  general  idea  of  Grenfell's  work 
on  the  Congo.  The  actual  biography — in  England  and  in 
Africa — of  this  missionary-explorer  will  be  compiled  in  a  more 
suitable  manner  by  another  writer.  It  might,  however,  be  not 
unbecoming  to  mention  in  this  prefatory  chapter  that  Grenfell 
refers  constantly  to  three  personalities  (other  than  his  Congo 
colleagues),  with  grateful  remarks  for  their  advice  and  kindness. 
The  first,  very  naturally,  is  Mr.  Alfred  Henry  Baynes,  for  many 
years  the  Secretary  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  ;  the 
second  is  Dr.  Scott  Keltic,  the  well-known  Secretary  of  the 


5.  BOLOBO  STATION  ;  GRENFELL'S  HOME  ON  THE  UPPER  CONGO 
FOR  SIXTEEN  YEARS 


Royal  Geographical  Society;  and  the  third  is  the  brother  of  his 
first  wife,  Mr.  Joseph  Hawkes,  of  Birmingham,  who  looked 
after  Grenfell's  children  when  they  were  at  school  in  England, 
and  rendered  many  other  kindly  services. 

The  writer  of  this  book  believes  that  practically  the  whole 
of  Grenfell's  private  papers  have  been  placed  in  his  hands, 
because  he  has  picked  out  geographical  and  scientific  notes 
even  from  the  backs  of  washing  lists !  It  is  therefore 
pleasant  to  record  that  throughout  the  whole  of  this  vast 
correspondence  there  is  not  one  single  note  indicative  of  un- 
kindly feeling,  of  jealousy  towards  colleagues,  of  envy  or  dis- 
paragement of  more  highly  honoured  brother-explorers.  With 


lo     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


the  exception  of  one  or  two  references  to  employes  of  the  Congo 
Concessionnah'e  Companies  whose  doings  have  been  discussed 
in  recent  trials  and  Hbel  actions,  there  is  nothing  in  these 
journals  that  might  not  be  pubhshed  to  the  world  as  it  stands. 

This  book,  however,  does  not  deal  entirely  and  only  with 
the  work  of  George  Grenfell.  His  researches,  photographs,  notes, 
and  references  provide  more  than  half  the  book.  But  it  has 
been  deliberately  intended  by  the  present  writer  to  combine  with 
an  account  of  the  geographical  and  scientific  explorations  of 
Grenfell  a  survey  of  the  contributions  to  science  and  to  our 
general  knowledge  of  West  Africa  provided  by  the  Baptist 
Mission  of  Great  Britain  from  the  date  of  the  arrival  of  Dr. 
Prince  and  the  Rev.  John  Clarke  at  the  island  of  Fernando  P6 
in  the  year  1840  down  to  the  present  day. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  ideals  of  hypothetical  mis- 
sionary societies  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century — 
ideals  which  gave  rise  to  the  conventional  notion  (scarcely  yet 
dead)  of  a  missionary  as  a  red-nosed  person  in  a  chimney- 
pot hat,  with  black  clothes,  black  gloves,  huge  boots,  and  a 
large  white  tie,  who  sang  hymns  under  palm  trees  to  unrespon- 
sive wild  beasts — the  representatives  of  the  Baptist  Missionary 
Society  have  always  been  essentially  practical  men,  with  whom 
science  was,  so  far  as  they  were  able  to  serve  it,  a  part  of 
their  religion.  Wherever  they  went  they  collected  notes  on 
languages,  on  ethnography,  and  specimens  to  illustrate  the 
natural  history  of  the  countries  they  visited.  If  there  was  a 
mountain  anywhere  within  reach,  they  ascended  it,  boiled 
thermometers  on  the  top  and  took  the  temperature  of  the  air. 
They  fixed  the  latitude  and  longitude  of  their  stations,  and 
collected  a  large  amount  of  geographical  information  which 
very  often  found  its  way  into  circulation  through  other 
channels.  For  the  earlier  missionaries  were  persons  of  retiring 
and  modest  demeanour,  who  were  only  too  glad  to  pass  on 
their  notes  to  explorers,  consuls,  and  the  commanders  of  gun- 
boats, in  whose  reports  or  volumes  this  information  has  usually 
appeared  with  an  acknowledgment  of  its  source,  but  occasionally, 
without. 

The  author  of  this  present  book  first  visited  the  Baptist 
mission  stations  on  the  Cameroons  in  1882.  He  resided  at 
Cameroons  and  Fernando  P6  in  a  Consular  capacity  from  1885 
to  1888.  In  the  autumn  of  1882  he  ascended  the  River  Congo, 
first  of  all  as  far  as  Stanley  Pool  and  later  on  to  Bolobo.  Be- 
tween Banana  Point  and  Stanley  Pool  he  was  not  infrequently 


GEORGE  GRENFELL 


the  guest  of  the  newly  founded  Baptist  mission  stations,  and  so 
in  one  way  and  the  other  made  the  personal  acquaintance  of  all 
the  notable  pioneers  of  this  Mission.  Noteworthy  among  these 
pioneers  were  men  of  colour,  negro  missionaries  from  the  West 
Indies — such  men  as  Joseph  Fuller  and  John  Pinnock,  jr.^  In- 
formation regarding  the  Cameroons  which  the  present  writer 
derived  from  Pinnock  and  Fuller  in  the  'eighties  is  incorporated 
in  this  book,  and  he  has  ventured  to  supply  as  a  sort  of  mortar 
to  the  stones  of  others'  quarrying  experiences  and  notes  of  his 


6.  A  missionary's  house  at  BOLENGI,  upper  CONGO 

own  connected  with  the  regions  described  by  Grenfell  and 
his  colleagues. 

There  may  be  some  reading  this  book  who  have  supported 
Mission  work  by  practical  contributions,  as  well  as  wordy  sym- 
pathy, who  will  complain  that  the  aspect  I  present  to  them  is 
entirely  secular,  that  very  few  references  are  made  to  religious 
teaching.  That  is  so  :  partly  because  the  religious  work  con- 
nected with  Grenfell's  mission  will  be  described  in  another 
volume  by  a  minister  of  his  Church.  But  there  is  also  another 
reason  which  should  be  taken  into  account,  not  only  by  those 
who  divorce  the  study  of  nature  from  religious  ideas,  but  by 
others,  equally  unreasonable,  who  not  believing  in  the  par- 

'  Both  of  whom  I  am  glad  to  think  are  still  living.  F"or  Pinnock's  portrait  see 
page  225.  (H.  H.  J.) 


12     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


ticular  tenets  or  dogmas  that  may  be  held  by  such-and-such 
a  missionary  society  would  ignore  the  enormous  amount  of 
good  that  has  been  accomplished  by  Christian  missions  in 
Africa  from  a  purely  ethical  standpoint,  and  the  gigantic  con- 
tributions they  have  made  to  the  store  of  the  world's  know- 
ledge in  philology,  in  folklore,  in  first-hand  studies  of  primitive 
people,  in  contributions  to  botany,  zoology,  geography,  and 
map-making.  It  is  the  desire  of  the  present  writer  to  draw 
general  attention  to  these  particular  aspects  and  results  of 
missionary  toil  and  enterprise. 

My  first  journeys  in  tropical  Africa  (i 882-1 883)  revealed 
to  me  this  collateral  view  of  mission  work  and  opened  my 
eyes  to  the  missionaries'  notable  achievements  in  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  sound,  material  civilization  (for  the  civilization  which 
is  merely  based  on  the  singing  of  hymns,  the  intoning  of 
psalms,  and  the  repetition  of  prayers  is  most  z^wsound).  The 
scientific  understanding  of  Africa  was  assisted  by  their  com- 
pilation of  treatises  on  dying  languages  ;  while  the  friendly 
relations  of  Europeans  and  negroes  were  forwarded  by  the 
Mission  grrammars  and  vocabularies  of  livinsf  lanoruaores  destined 
to  be  means  of  intercourse  between  black  and  white  or  black 
and  yellow.  I  was  the  guest  of  such  great  missionaries  of  the 
Roman  Church  as  Pere  Duparquet  in  southern  Angola,  visited 
Bishop  Crowther  and  his  son  in  the  Niger  Delta,  discussed 
ethnology  with  patriarchs  of  African  discovery  like  the  Rev. 
Hugh  Goldie  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Mission  on  the  Cross 
River  ;  and  watched  the  Primitive  Methodists  timidly  holding 
on  in  Fernando  P6  under  the  still  frowning  Spanish  Govern- 
ment (not  then  friendly  to  Protestant  missions).  I  visited  the 
Baptist  missionaries  on  the  Duala  shore  in  the  Cameroons,  and 
made  the  acquaintance  of  Comber,  Bentley,  Crudgington,  and 
other  Baptist  missionaries  on  the  western  Congo.  My  work 
then  led  me  to  the  other  side  of  the  continent,  the  sphere 
of  the  Universities'  Mission  at  Zanzibar  and  of  the  Church 
Missionary  Society  on  the  Mombasa  coast,  to  the  French, 
Dutch,  and  Irish  priests  of  the  Mission  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Mary,  and  later  on  to  the  Mission 
of  the  White  Fathers  on  Tanganyika  and  Nyasa,  the  Lon- 
don Missionary  Society,  and  the  Missions  of  the  Established 
and  Free  Churches  of  Scotland  in  British  Central  Africa.  I 
scarcely  recall  with  any  of  these  propagandists  a  discussion  on 
theology  or  matters  of  faith.  If  such  had  taken  place,  no  doubt 
deep-seated  differences  of  opinion  might  have  been  revealed  ; 
but  I  do  remember  (besides  most  warm-hearted,  unstinted  hos- 


GEORGE  GRENFELL 


13 


pitality)  that  I  soon  came  to  regard  them  as  men  deeply  versed 
in  the  lore  of  Africa,  and  above  all  as  the  Tribunes  of  the  people. 

It  has  been  the  custom  to  regard  missionaries  of  British 
nationality  as  pioneers  of  Empire  ;  and  it  is  so  far  true  in  that 
the  successful  establishment  of  a  British  relioious  mission  has 
frequently  been  followed  by  a  sphere  of  influence,  a  pro- 
tectorate, a  colony.  But  this  has  arisen  partly  because  the 
calming  of  the  natives  and  the  civilization  introduced  by  the 
missionaries  has  attracted  British  trade,  while  acquaintance  with 


7.  liRICK.-.MAKl.\G  Al    llOl'Ulu:    AN  ELEJIENT  IN  "SOUND,  MATERIAL 

CIVILIZATION  " 


the  missionaries  themselves  as  examples  of  the  British  type  ot 
white  man  has  favourably  disposed  native  chiefs  and  people 
towards  the  political  intervention  of  Great  Britain.  To  a  certain 
extent  similar  results  have  followed  from  the  action  of  other 
missionaries,  not  British  ;  that  is  to  say  that  the  work  of  the 
Rhenish  missions  in  South-West  Africa  certainly  paved  the 
way  for  the  German  Protectorate  over  that  region.  Portuguese 
missionaries  attempted  in  former  centuries  to  do  the  same  thing 
for  their  own  country.^    The  French  missionaries  have  quite 

1  Curiously  enough  they  brought  about  a  contrary  effect,  undoing  by  their  pohtical 
ambitions  some  of  the  good  achieved  by  the  conquistadores  who  had  preceded  them, 
and  who  had  captivated  the  fancy  of  the  negro  to  a  degree  hardly  equalled  by  the 
representatives  of  any  other  white  race  down  to  the  present  day— those  conquistadores 


14     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


naturally  attempted  to  "  francify  "  West  Africa,  Central  Africa, 
Northern  Africa,  and  Madagascar.  Italian  missionaries  have 
desired  to  bring  Abyssinia  back  to  the  influence  of  modern 
Rome.  It  is  not  surprising  therefore  if  British  missionaries 
have  wished  to  replace  the  sickening  disorder  they  have  found 
in  native  communities  by  the  peace  and  comfort  that  prevail  in 
most  British  colonies. 

But  it  is  not  the  case  that  they  have  been  "Imperialists"  first 
and  propagandists  second.  More  often  than  not  British  mis- 
sionaries have  made  a  stout  fight  for  the  independence,  the 
property,  the  morality  of  the  people  amongst  whom  they  have 
settled.  One  has  only  to  recall  the  efforts  made  by  bishops  and 
missionaries  of  the  Church  of  England  in  Natal,  by  the  Scottish 
missionaries  in  the  Shire  Highlands  and  on  Lake  Nyasa,  the 
London  Missionary  Society's  agents  (of  whom  Livingstone  was 
once  one)  from  the  interior  of  Cape  Colony  right  up  to  Tan- 
ganyika through  Bechuanaland,  to  recall  instances  in  which 
British  missionaries  have  incurred  the  dislike  of  British  Imperial 
and  Colonial  officials,  military  officers,  consuls,  explorers,  or 
concession-hunters  by  standing  up  for  the  rights  of  the  native, 
and  even  deprecating  the  introduction  of  a  direct  form  of  British 
government  where  the  native  community  seemed  happy  and 
well  ordered  without  it. 

Of  course  here  and  there  abuses  of  missionary  authority 
have  occurred.  Elated  with  the  rapid  growth  of  their  in- 
fluence— an  influence  entirely  unsupported  by  arms— the  mis- 
sionary has  thought  to  create  a  Theocracy,  a  little  state 
governed  on  his  own  plan,  in  which  he  would  wield  supreme 
authority  as  spiritual  and  temporal  ruler,  keeping  out  the 
roystering  trader,  the  miner,  the  hunter,  and  even  the  consul  or 
magistrate.  Rare  cases  have  even  occurred  w^here,  unbalanced 
by  the  power  they  wielded,  missionaries  have  had  recourse  to 
arbitrary  and  even  cruel  methods  for  enforcing  their  decrees, 
or  rather,  where  they  have  allowed  "  lay  agents  "  to  perform 
the  obnoxious  part  of  castigator.  The  present  writer  has  even 
once  or  twice  in  his  own  career  as  an  administrator  come  into 
conflict  with  missionary  opinion,  the  latter  being  doggedly  on 
the  side  of  peace  when  warlike  measures  seemed  unavoidable 
if  some  definite  authority  was  to  be  upheld.  But  the  excep- 
tions to  the  general  rule  of  missionary  beneficence  are  trifling 

who  after  only  a  few  years'  intercourse  left  an  impress  on  Benin  not  yet  lost,  who 
inspired  much  of  the  civilization  of  south  Congoland,  and  who  left  many  a  grand 
building  and  many  a  word  in  the  languages  to  attest  their  brief  domination  over  the 
East  African  littoral. 


GEORGE  GRENFELL 


15 


in  comparison  to  the  results  of  a  hundred  years  of  missionary 
work  in  Africa  from,  let  us  say,  1807  to  1907.  When  this 
period  has  receded  into  the  perspective  of  history  we  shall 
realize  that  it  is  the  one  section  of  that  tremendous  century  of 
the  European  invasion  of  Africa  to  which  we  can  look  back 
with  absolute  satisfaction,  since  its  results  must  be  adjudged 
good  by  the  canon  common  to  all  humanity,  to  the  educated 
Moslem,  the  Christian,  the  Agnostic,  or  the  worshipper  of 
African  deities. 

Missionary  thought,  at  any  rate  in  the  Protestant  fold, 


8.  NATIVE  BLACKSMITHS  TRAINED  BY  THE  BAPTIST  MISSION  ON  THE 

UPPER  CONGO 


passed  through  one  or  two  silly  phases  in  the  sentimental 
'forties  and  'fifties  of  the  last  century,  phases  held  up  to  well- 
deserved  and  scarcely  too  trenchant  caricature  by  Charles 
Dickens  in  his  sketch  of  Mrs.  Jellyby,  her  associates  and  her 
attempts  to  civilize  Borriaboola-Gha.^  Occasionally,  more- 
over, outside  missionary  circles,  there  has  flitted  before  one's 
mental  vision  in  reading  literature  connected  with  missions  (of 
twenty  years  ago  and  more)  a  concept  of  a  large,  loutish  negro 
or  Asiatic,  dressed  in  too  many  garments,  lolling  at  his  ease, 
supported  by  the  doles  of  far-away  contributors,  and  only 
called  upon  in  redemption  of  his  laziness  to  sing  a  good  many 

^  These  passages  in  Bleak  House  were  really  intended  to  satirize  the  ridiculous 
fuss  made  over  the  "  King  "  of  Bonny. 


i6     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


badly  translated  hymns  and  to  have  waded  through  Scripture 
history  from  Genesis  to  Judges.  I  write  "there  has  flitted 
before  one's  mental  vision,"  but  as  likely  as  not  the  lay  reader 
was  biassed  by  writers  inimical  to  missionary  influence,  and 
found  in  their  caricatures  the  ideals  which  the  missionaries  were 
supposed  to  work  for,  but  which  in  reality  never  entered  the 
minds  of  the  most  sentimental  amongst  them. 

No  such  ideal  of  hypocritical  idleness  can  be  found  by 


9.  B.M.S.S.  "peace"  on  the  NORTHERN  CONGO,  NEAR  STANLEY  FALLS 
The  "  Peace"  was  the  steamer  in  which  Grenfell  made  his  principal  exploring  journeys. 


anyone  who  probes  the  literature  of  the  Baptist  Missionary 
Society,  certainly  not  that  inspired  by  Saker,  nor  which  has 
grown  up  since  1878  in  the  great  Congo  Mission.  Work,  hard 
work,  intelligent  work,  education,  thrift,  sanitation,  the  rising  up 
to  lead  a  decent,  joyous,  comfortable  life  are  among  the  aims 
striven  for  in  their  work  and  teaching  by  such  men  as  Grenfell, 
Comber,  Bentley,  Weeks,  Lewis,  and  all  the  representatives  of 
this  mission. 

But  as  it  seems  impossible  in  this  world  to  satisfy  every- 
body, the  very  stress  that  I  may  lay  for  the  conciliation  of  the 


GEORGE  GRENFELL 


17 


Mammon  of  Unriohteousness,  of  that  orowiiiQ-  class  which  is 
more  and  more  incHfferent  to  the  inculcation  of  dogma,  on  the 
practical  good  achieved  by  missionary  societies  will  furnish  a 
basis  for  the  sneers  of  peevish  reactionaries  (and  there  are  still 
many)  who  care  nothing"  for  the  "moral  and  material"  welfare 
of  the  backward  races,  but  whose  only  object  in  supporting 
missionary  societies  is  that  the  heathen  may  be  converted  to 
such  and  such  a  section  of  Christianity,  that  in  Africa  may  be 
perpetuated  the  religious  hatreds,  differences,  and  rivalries  of 
Mediaeval  Europe,  or  of  some  petty  English  provincial  town. 

I  still  venture  to  hope,  however,  that  any  reader  who  has 
the  patience  to  go  through  these  two  bulky  volumes  may  have 
been  brought  to  realize  firstly  the  great  material  good  effected 
by  the  work  of  the  Baptist  Mission  in  Fernando  Po,  the 
Cameroons,  and  the  basin  of  the  Congo  ;  and  secondly,  the 
remarkable  additions  contributed  by  Grenfell  and  his  colleagues 
to  the  sum  of  human  knowledge,  to  scientific  research  :  which 
as  time  goes  on  must  become  more  and  more  identified  with 
our  religion,  and  with  our  attempts  to  gauge  and  declare  the 
truth. 


I. — c 


CHAPTER  II 


FERNANDO  PO :  1840-58 

THE  Baptist  Missionary  Society  of  England  came  into 
existence  at  Nottingham  in  the  autumn  of  1792  as  an 
outcome  of  the  eloquence  of  William  Carey,  who  sailed 
with  his  wife  for  India  on  a  Danish  ship  in  1793.^  In  1806 
the  attention  of  this  missionary  society  was  drawn  to  the  condi- 
tion of  the  negro  slaves  in  the  British  West  Indies,  and  the 
first  missionary  went  out  from  England  to  Jamaica  in  18 14. 
Here,  in  Jamaica,  and  in  other  West  India  islands,  the  Baptist 
missionaries  joined  forces  with  the  Quakers  and  other  Non- 
conformist bodies  in  adv'ocating  the  abolition  of  slavery. 
When  this  result  was  achieved  the  Baptists  began  to  turn 
their  attention  to  the  movement  for  repatriating  freed  slaves 
on  the  West  Coast  of  Africa.  West  Indian  and  United  States 
Baptist  ministers  had  already  interested  themselves  in  the 
foundation  of  Liberia.  In  pursuance  of  ideas  similar  to  that 
which  brought  about  the  foundation  of  Liberia,  the  Baptist 
Mission  sent  two  of  its  workers  in  Jamaica  (Dr.  G.  K.  Prince 
and  the  Rev.  John  Clarke)  to  find  a  further  likely  home  for 
freed  slaves  on  West  African  territory  other  than  the  settle- 
ments of  Sierra  Leone  and  Liberia.  A  visit  was  paid  to  the 
Spanish  possessions  of  Fernando  P6  in  1840,  and  the  report  of 
Prince  and  Clarke  being  favourable,"  in  1843  two  expeditions 
of  Baptist  missionaries,  amongst  whom  were  the  Rev.  Joseph 
Merrick  (of  Jamaica),  Alfred  Saker,  Thomas  Sturgeon,  Dr. 

'  Any  idea  of  Christian  propaganda,  except  such  as  had  already  been  estabhshed 
by  the  Church  of  Rome,  was  distasteful  to  the  Directors  of  the  Honourable  East 
India  Company,  who  feared  therefrom  an  outbreak  of  IMuhammadan  and  Hindu 
fanaticism.  The  beginnings  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  in  India  were  practi- 
cally only  made  possible  by  the  protection  and  assistance  of  the  King  and  Queen  of 
Denmark,  that  country  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  ha\  ing  a  certain  foothold 
on  or  influence  over  the  shores  or  islands  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal. 

^  In  regard  to  the  land  and  buildings  offered  then  for  acquisition  at  the  north 
end  of  the  island,  land  which  had  formerly  been  cleared  and  occupied  by  the  Admiralty 
as  a  naval  station. 

18 


FERNANDO  PO  :  1840  58 


19 


G.  K.  Prince,  and  the  Rev.  John  Clarke/  set  out  for  I'ernando 
P6.  Prince,  Sturgeon,  and  Merrick  had  travelled  from  England 
to  Fernando  P6  by  some  more  direct  route  than  the  customary 
sailing-vessel  voyage  via  the  West  Indies;  but  Saker  and 
Clarke  went  first 
to  Jamaica,  where 
they  gathered  more 
people  who  were  de- 
sirous to  emigrate 
to  Africa,  and  they 
did  not  reach  Port 
Clarence,  at  the 
north  end  of  Fer- 
nando P6,  till  Feb- 
ruary 1844,  They 
made  the  journey 
all  the  way  from 
Cornwall  to  Jam- 
aica and  Jamaica 
to  Fernando  P6  in 
a  small  sailing  ves- 
sel,  the  Chilmark, 
of  only  179  tons. 

The  island  of 
Fernando  P6  is 
said  traditionally  to 
have  been  discov- 
ered by  a  Portu- 
guese navigator  in  1471,  whose  name  was  Fernam  do  Poo  or 
Povo  ["  Ferdinand  of  the  people  "].    He  is  reported  to  have 


THE  REV.  JOHN  CLARKE,  A  PIONEER  AFRICAN  PHILO- 
LOGIST AND  MISSIONARY  IN  FERNANDO  Po 


1  The  Rev.  John  Clarke,  of  Jericho,  Jamaica,  was  one  of  the  first  students  of 
African  languages  of  the  modern  school.  Writing  in  the  'forties  of  the  last  century, 
he  had  already  grasped  the  idea — promulgated  first  by  Lichtenstein  in  1808— of  the 
homogeneity  of  the  Bantu  languages.  He  realized  that  the  southern  third  of  Africa 
was  covered  with  but  one  great  speech  group  (except  of  course  the  tongues  of  the 
Bushmen  and  Hottentot),  and  understood  that  there  was  community  of  origin  between 
the  languages  of  Zanzibar  and  Fernando  P6.  Clarke  published  in  1844  Specimens  of 
Dialects :  Short  Vocabularies  of  about  Two  Hundred  Africa7i  Lant^uages"  which  he  had 
taken  down  from  freed  slaves.  He  thus  no  doubt  suggested  to  a  brother  missionary  of 
the  Church  of  England,  the  Rev.  S.  S.  Koelle,  that  much  greater  work,  Polyglotta 
Africana^  which  was  soon  afterwards  commenced  at  Sierra  Leone.  Clarke  was  also 
the  author  of  the  earliest  and  perhaps  the  best  treatises  on  the  indigenous  Bantu 
language  of  Fernando  P6,  entitled  The  Adeeyah  Vocabulary  (1841)  and  Introduction 
to  the  Fernandian  Tongue  (1848).  These  are  further  alluded  to  in  an  appendix  to  the 
present  book.  Owing  to  ill-health,  he  left  Fernando  P6  in  1849  with  a  party  of 
Jamaican  emigrants  who  were  dissatisfied  with  their  life  in  Africa,  and  returned  to  the 
West  Indies.    Clarke  died  in  1879. 


20     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


called  the  island,  very  appropriately,  Ilha  Formosa  [the 
"Beautiful  Island"].  He  afterwards  turned  to  the  north,  and 
discovered,  or  at  any  rate  visited  and  named,  the  Benin  River, 
which  on  account  of  the  rich  forest  on  its  banks  he  styled 
Rio  Formoso  or  the  Beautiful  River.  Nothintr  more  is  known 
or  recorded  of  him,  but  the  island  has  ever  since  borne  his 
name  in  a  slightly  altered  form. 

The  Portuguese  made  but  little  attempt  to  colonize  the 
island,  either  on  account  of  the  hostility  of  the  indigenes,  or 
because  of  the  unhealthy  climate  of  the  coast.  In  1777  it  was 
transferred  to  Spain  in  exchange  for  an  island  and  a  strip  of 
coast  in  Brazil.  The  Spaniards  desired  to  make  it  the  base  for 
their  slave-trading  operations  in  the  Bights  of  Biafra  and 
Benin,  for  towards  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  an 
increasino-  demand  was  beinor  made  for  necjro  labour  in  the 
Spanish-American  possessions.  But  the  Spaniards  abandoned 
the  island  owing  to  the  hostility  of  the  natives  in  1782  (and 
also  because  of  the  unhealthiness  of  the  climate).  British  war- 
ships and  merchant  vessels  began  to  visit  Fernando  P6  in 
1783,  and  from  1827  till  1845  Fernando  P6  became  the  naval 
base  for  the  British  fleet  in  the  Gulf  of  Guinea.^  Till  1834 
the  island  was  governed  for  Great  Britain  by  an  energetic 
man,  Lieut.-Colonel  Nicholls,  who  had  already  conceived  the 
ambitious  idea  of  a  great  British  tropical  possession  in  the 
Cameroons,  and  who  had  actually  hoisted  the  British  flag 
on  that  coast  and  concluded  a  treaty  with  the  local  chief  of 
Bimbia,  near  the  base  of  the  Cameroons  Mountain. 

When  the  British  Government  decided  to  evacuate  Fer- 
nando P6  in  1834,  they  sold  the  property  they  had  acquired 
from  the  Bube  natives  at  the  north  end  of  the  island  to 
Messrs.   Dillon  and  Tennant,  who  afterwards  transferred  it 

•  In  1827  the  celebrated  navigator  Captain  W.  F.  Owen  took  possession  of  the 
island  (on  Cliristmas  Day)  for  King  George  IV,  and  purchased  one  square  mile  of 
land  from  the  Bube  chiefs.  Besides  his  two  frigates  the  Edoi  and  the  Diadon, 
he  had  with  him  f/ie  first  sicam  gimboat  in  these  waters,  the  Africa/i.  It  was 
announced  that  the  following  reasons  induced  the  British  Government  to  take  this 
step:  (i)  To  watch  slavers  and  to  check  the  Slave  Trade  in  the  Bight  of  Biafra. 
(2)  To  be  able  to  liberate  negroes  taken  in  slave  vessels  in  the  Gulf  of  Guinea, 
and  so  avoid  the  long  voyage  to  Sierra  Leone.  (3)  To  be  able  to  move  the  Mixed 
Commission  Court  from  Sierra  Leone  and  abandon,  as  Government  settlements, 
Sierra  Leone  and  Cape  Coast  Castle,  should  the  island  be  found  to  be  as  healthy 
as  the  projectors  of  the  plan  anticipated.  (4)  To  afford  the  greatest  possible 
facilities  for  introducing  religion,  commerce,  and  civilization  into  Africa.  But 
rum  and  debauchery,  besides  ignorance  of  African  hygiene  and  the  mosquito 
danger,  played  havoc  with  the  bluejackets  and  marines  ;  and  in  1834  Admiral 
Fleming  ordered  the  abandonment  of  the  station  as  a  naval  base  in  favour  of  the 
peninsula  of  Sierra  Leone.  The  Niger  expedition  caused  it  to  be  partially  occupied 
till  1845. 


FERNANDO  PO  :  1840-58 


21 


to  the  West  African  Company,  whose  affairs  were  directed 
by  a  certain  Captain  Beecroft.^  The  West  African  Com- 
pany sold  their  property  in  1843  to  the  Baptist  Mission. 
Meantime,  between  1827  and  1840,  a  large  extraneous 
negro  population  [generally  called  "  Poto  "  negroes]  had  been 
settled  in  the  vicinity  of  Port  Clarence.  Here  the  tribunal 
for  judging  the  captured  slave-trading  ships  was  established 
(until  1834),  and  in  many  cases  the  released  slaves  were  de- 
posited at  the  north  end  of  Fernando  P6  in  default  of  any  other 
home. 


II.    CLARENCE  (OR  SANTA  ISAllELJ  I'KAK,   FERNANDO  Po,  ABOUT 
10,000  FEET  IN  ALTITUDE 


It  was  chiefly  amongst  the  West  Indian  immigrants  [who 
hoped  to  found  another  Liberia],  and  the  numerous  slaves  from 
the  Congo,  Cameroons,  and  Niger  Delta  freed  by  the  British 
cruisers  and  landed  at  Port  Clarence,  that  the  Baptist  Mission- 
ary Society  carried  on  its  work ;  though  several  not  unsuccess- 
ful attempts  were  made  to  Christianize  and  civilize  the  timid 
Bubes  or  indigenous  forest  tribes  of  Fernando  P6.  These 
latter,  however,  proved  themselves  sixty  years  ago,  as  at  the 
present  time,  very  refractory  to  European  civilization.  Though 

'  Beecroft  subsequently  became  British  Consul  [and  Acting  Spanish  Governor] 
for  Fernando  P6  and  Consul  for  the  Oil  Rivers,  and  in  this  capacity,  in  a  small 
steamer  called  the  Ethiope^  he  explored  the  Cross  River  behind  Old  Calabar,  his 
furthest  point  in  1844  remaining  the  limit  to  European  exploration  in  that  direction 
until  the  settlement  of  the  Anglo-German  boundary  in  1890. 


22     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


timid,  and  seldom  actively  hostile  to  the  white  man,  they 
shrank  from  his  influence,  and  had  always  resented  his  presence 
on  the  island  from  the  earliest  attempts  at  settlement  by  the 
Portuguese  and  Spaniards. 

Nevertheless,  at  Port  Clarence  (so  christened  in  1827 
in  honour  of  the  future  William  IV)  the  Baptist  Mis- 
sionary Society  founded  a  flourishing  station  amid  a  foreign, 
English-speaking  colony  of  over  two  thousand  negroes  and 
mulattoes.  Some  of  the  West  Indian  families  remain  there  to 
this  day,  or  have  moved  over  to  the  adjoining  coast  at  Ambas 
Bay.^ 

But  even  as  early  as  1845  the  Baptist  missionaries  were  led 
to  anticipate  difficulties  from  the  intention  of  Spain  to  reoccupy 
Fernando  P6,  and  to  exclude  therefrom  as  far  as  possible  any 
form  of  Protestant  Christianity,  or  any  agency  that  might  keep 
alive  in  the  minds  of  the  negro  settlers  the  idea  of  British 
nationality.  In  1846  two  Spanish  warships  arrived.  The 
Spanish  flag  was  hoisted  at  Port  Clarence,  which  was  re- 
named Santa  Isabel,  and  a  number  of  Spanish  priests  were 
landed.  To  the  Prior  of  the  Order  of  the  Immaculate  Heart 
of  Mary  was  entrusted  the  control  of  all  education  in  the 
island. 

Although  the  Spanish  Governor  displayed  a  certain  kindli- 
ness and  consideration  towards  the  obviously  good  results  of 
the  work  of  Prince,  Saker,  and  Clarke,  the  priests  who  accom- 
panied him  objected  strongly  to  the  presence  on  the  island  of 
these  Baptist  missionaries.  Their  objections  might  have  led  to 
the  immediate  expulsion  of  the  Baptists  but  that  in  1847  almost 
all  the  Spanish  missionaries  were  dead  of  fever  or  had  with- 
drawn owing  to  severe  illness.  They  were  obliged  moreover 
to  accept  the  medical  ministrations  of  Dr.  G.  K.  Prince,  and 
this  rendered  difficult  an  attitude  of  uncompromising  hostility. 
The  Baptists  therefore  were  allowed  for  some  twelve  years  to 
continue  their  educational  work  in  a  very  limited  form  to  those 
foreign  negroes  who  were  already  members  of  the  Baptist 
Church.  But  at  last,  in  1858,  even  this  permission  was  with- 
drawn, and  the  Baptists  were  practically  expelled  from  the 
island,  their  land  (originally  purchased  from  the  West  African 
Trading  Company)  being  expropriated.  The  Spanish  Gover- 
nor held  out  some  prospect  of  monetary  compensation,  and 
counting  on  this  act  of  obvious  justice  being  carried  into  effect 
by  the  metropolitan  Government  at  Madrid,  the  head  of  the 

'  From  one  of  these  is  descended  the  widow  of  the  missionary-explorer 
Grenfell. 


FERNANDO  PO  :  1840-58 


23 


Mission  (then  Alfred  Saker)  resolved  to  invest  the  com- 
pensation for  their  property  in  Fernando  P6  in  purchasing 
the  site  for  a  large  settlement  on  the  opposite  coast  of  Ambas 
Bay.^ 

The  best  work  of  the  Baptist  Mission  in  Fernando  P6  was 
carried  on  between  the  years  1844  and  1849.  Mr.  Clarke, 
however,  had  returned  to  Jamaica  in  1848  with  a  number  of 
dissatisfied  West  Indians.  The  incidents  of  Liberian  history 
were  repeated.  Mulattoes  and  negroes  born  in  America  found 
they  could  not  stand  the  equatorial  West  African  climate  much 
better  than  Europeans  :  that  is  to  say  they  were  not  any  more 
immune  from  malarial  fever.  The  Spanish  Government  at 
this  period  paralysed  industry.  It  would  not  (then)  take  com- 
plete charge  of  the  island  and  carry  out  necessary  public  works; 
neither  would  it  allow  the  missionaries  or  the  West  Indian 
settlers  to  do  so. 

In  1849,  Dr.  Prince,  his  wife,  and  another  medical  mis- 
sionary, Newbegin,^  were  compelled  to  leave  for  England 
owing  to  serious  illness.  The  fact  was,  no  one  in  those  days 
guessed  the  connection  of  the  mosquito  with  malarial  fever. 
The  actual  climate  of  Fernando  P6  was — is — much  less  en- 
feebling, much  healthier  than  that  of  the  mainland.  But  the 
rank  vegetation  round  the  settlements  harboured  innumerable 
mosquitoes,  including,  no  doubt,  many  Anopheles.  The  im- 
ported slaves  from  the  adjoining  mainland  supplied  the  malarial 
germs,  and  so  the  fevers  of  Fernando  P6 — from  1780  to 
(say)  1900 — were  more  frequent  and  more  fatal  than  those 
of  Old  Calabar  or  the  Cameroons  estuary.  But  since  the  avoid- 
ance of  the  mosquito  and  the  destruction  of  his  harbourage 
have  been  understood  at  Fernando  P6,  Europeans  have 
found  it  (especially  above  3,000  feet  altitude)  not  much  less 
healthy  than  the  kindred  island  of  Sao  Thome  [which  is 
actually  a  European  colony,  like  Madeira,  though  under  the 
Equator]. 

The  "Poto"^  population  of  West  Indian,  Sierra  Leone, 
and  freed-slave  origin  which  was  mainly  planted  by  the  Bap- 

^  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  not  until  the  British  Ambassador  at  Madrid  had 
made  very  strong  representations  to  the  Spanish  Government,  that  the  compensation 
money — ^^1,500 — was  paid,  at  the  close  of  1861.  The  Mission  had  been  led  to  expect 
that  they  would  receive  ^2,000,  which  was  considerably  less  than  \\  hat  they  had  spent 
on  their  lands  at  Port  Clarence,  and  they  had  therefore  invested  /2,ooo  by  1858  in 
the  acquisition  of  the  Victoria  settlement  at  Ambas  Bay. 

^  Dr.  Newbegin  afterwards  returned  to  Cameroons. 

^  Poto  was  the  Bube  name  for  the  British  settlement  at  Clarence  (now  Santa 
Isabel).  The  word  seems  to  have  meant  "foreign"  and  may  be  an  abbreviation  of 
"  Portuguese." 


24    GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


tists  round  Santa  Isabel,  has  after  many  fluctuations  and 
resolves  to  leave  Spanish  rule  finally  begun  to  prosper,  owing 
to  the  cacao-planting  industry  introduced  by  Messrs.  John 
Holt  and  Co.  and  by  some  enterprising  Spaniards,  Cubans,  and 
Portuguese.  This  agriculture,  the  use  of  the  English  language, 
the  adhesion  to  Protestant  forms  of  Christianity,  are  all  relics 
of  the  Baptist  settlement  of  1843-9  and  185 1-8. 

In  the  beginning  of  1870  the  Spanish  Government  under 
the  liberal  direction  of  Prince  allowed  the  Primitive  Metho- 
dists to  succeed  the  Baptists  in  order  to  minister  to  the  needs 
of  the  English-speaking  colony  which  was  outside  the  fold  of 
Rome.  But  of  late  years  this  mission  has  been  harassed  in 
its  work  by  many  restrictions.  They  may  not  have  bells 
on  their  churches,  their  day-schools  have  been  peremptorily 
closed.  They  may  not  conduct  services  in  the  church  at  the 
burial  of  the  dead.  They  are  thus  very  much  hampered  in 
dealing  with  the  civilized  negro  element  in  the  Europeanized 
towns. 

But  the  Primitive  Methodists  do  not  appear  to  be  prevented 
by  the  Spanish  Government  from  working  among  the  indi- 
genous Bubes,  and  as  early  as  1875  they  had  added  to  Clarke's 
studies  of  the  Bube  language.  This  interesting  aboriginal 
population  [which  will  be  further  described  in  the  second 
volume  of  this  book]  seems  now  to  be  on  the  down  grade. 
They  are  succumbing  to  the  bad  rum  which  is  unhappily 
allowed  to  be  imported  (or  manufactured)  and  sold  by  the 
Cuban,  "  Poto,"  or  European  traders:  despite  the  protests  of 
the  Catholic  and  Methodist  missionaries. 

Although  the  attitude  of  the  Spanish  Government  in  the 
island  has  not  been  consistent  with  principles  of  religious  free- 
dom and  may  in  this  instance  have  been  inspired  by  the  Roman 
Catholic  missionaries,  these  last  have  been — at  any  rate  for 
more  than  thirty  years — solicitous  for  the  welfare  of  the 
Bubes. ^ 

When  Clarke  and  Prince  originally  selected  Fernando  P6 
as  a  refuge  for  Jamaican  negroes  who  were  unhappy  in  the 
West  Indies,  and  similarly  when  the  British  Government 
chose  Fernando  P6  as  the  dumping  ground  for  the  slaves  set 
free  from  captured  slave-ships,  neither  party  gave  much  heed  to 
the  real  natives  of  Fernando  P6 — the  Bubes — who  in  Clarke's 

1  The  Rev.  Father  Joaquim  Juanola,  a  missionary  of  the  order  "Del  Inmaculado 
Corazon  de  Man'a,"  pubhshed  in  1890  an  important  study  of  the  Bube  language. 
His  colleagues  have  carefully  explored  and  mapped  the  island.  Principal  Father 
Coll  and  Father  Albanell  of  the  same  mission  have  done  good  work  among  the 
Bubes  of  the  IMoka  district. 


FERNANDO  PO  :  1840-58 


25 


day  (say  1 848)  numbered  over  twenty  thousand.  Subsequently 
the  Baptist  missionaries  made  a  special  study  of  this  people 
just  as  the  Spanish  priests  have  done.  Both  'types  of  mis- 
sionaries^ acted  as 
buffers  between  the 
British  seamen  or 
Spanish  soldiers,  the 
traders,  planters, 
West  Indian,  Sierra 
Leone,  and  Kru 
negroes,  on  the  one 
hand;  and  the  timid, 
sometimes  treacher- 
ous indigenes  on  the 
other.  Grenfell  [who 
visited  Fernando  P6 
between  1876  and 
1 901]  was  one  of 
the  very  few  Euro- 
peans who  ever  in- 
duced a  Bube  to 
take  up  regular  ser- 
vice and  to  leave 
Fernando  P6  for 
employment.  But 
even  now  the  Bube 
stands  aloof  and 
goes  on  leading  the 
life  of  the  Stone 
Age,  whilst  Fer- 
nando P6  planters 
send  all  the  way  to 
Liberia  for  labour 
in  the  cacao  planta- 
tions. There  is  only 
one  thing  the  white 

man  can  offer  which  will  tempt  the  Bube  to  do  any  work  : 
rum.  It  is  to  be  feared  by  the  time  the  Bube  is  ready  to 
accept  as  a  first  principle  that  he  must  toil  as  other  men  do 
he  will  be — as  a  race — on  the  verge  of  extinction,  poisoned  by 
rum  and  gin  in  spite  of  all  the  conferences  of  European  powers 
which  lay  clown  principles  regarding  the  sale  of  alcohol  to 

1  And  equally  so— according  to  the  Austiian  traveller,  Oskar  Baumann — have 
the  Primitive  Methodists  through  such  men  as  the  Rev.  John  Barleycorn. 


12.  A  BUBE  OR  INDIGENOUS  NATIVE  OF  FERNANDO  PO 


26     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


heedless  savages,  and  decline  to  put  them  into  practice. 
Perhaps  the  missionaries  may  intervene  in  time  to  save  a 
remnant  of  a  very  interesting  Bantu  people.  But  the  rapid 
growth  of  a  foreign  population — negro,  mulatto,  and  white — 
in  an  island  of  extraordinary  fertility  and  beauty,  with  a  range 
of  climate  and  products  from  equatorial  heat  and  all  the  most 
precious  growths  of  the  tropics  to  the  crisp  coolness,  the 
flowers  and  vegetables  of  western  Europe,  may  soon  swamp 
the  poor  Bubes  in  spite  of  all  the  missionaries  can  do  to  tame 
and  train  them. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  CAMEROONS:  1845-87 

THE  name  Cameroons,  which  is  primarily  appHcable  to 
the  estuary  of  many  rivers  which  lies  to  the  south-east 
of  the  Cameroon  Mountains,  was  given  in  the  first 
place  by  the  Portuguese  when  their  ships  discovered  this 
region  in  1480.  The  word  is  an  English  corruption  of  the 
Portuguese  plural  Camaroes,  meaning  "prawns."  When  the 
Portuguese  ships  entered  the  brackish  water  of  this  estuary 
(about  1480)  they  noticed,  as  many  subsequent  travellers  have 
done,  the  abundance  of  prawns,  especially  in  the  mangrove 
creeks.  The  name  has  recently  been  extended  to  all  the  region 
lying  to  the  south  of  Old  Calabar  country  and  the  Rio  del  Rey 
estuary,  and  north  of  about  2°  30'  N.  Lat.  The  Germans, 
when  they  first  began  to  take  an  interest  in  African  geography, 
chose  to  spell  the  name  phonetically  (as  it  was  pronounced  by 
the  English),  and  the  official  designation  of  a  vast  German 
possession  which  has  grown  up  from  the  original  nucleus  on 
the  Cameroons  estuary  is  now  given  as  Kamerun.  No  doubt 
many  people,  English  as  well  as  German,  think  this  is  some 
word  of  African  origin,  and  not  a  very  trivial  designation 
meaning  prawns  or  shrimps. 

Very  little  was  known  of  this  country  beyond  its  actual 
coast  line  until  the  Baptist  missionaries  moved  across  to  the 
peninsula  of  Bimbia  and  the  Duala  shores  of  the  Cameroons 
estuary  in  1845. 

Already  in  1844  Saker^  and  Merrick"  had  turned  their  eyes 

'  Alfred  Saker,  the  "Apostle  of  the  Cameroons,"  was  born  in  1814  at  the  still 
charming  village  of  Borough  Green,  near  Wrotham,  Kent.  He  was  the  son  of  a 
millwright  and  engineer,  passed  an  examination  at  Woolwich  Arsenal,  and  worked 
as  a  draughtsman  in  the  Government  dockyards  of  Deptford  and  Devonport  till  he 
joined  the  Baptist  Mission  in  1843. 

^  Joseph  Merrick  was  a  West  Indian  mulatto  who  from  the  beginning  of  1845 
devoted  himself  more  especially  to  the  Isubu  people  of  the  Bimbia  promontory. 
This  race,  which  also  inhabits  the  north-western  part  of  the  Cameroons  delta — 
Bimbia  Peninsula,  in  fact,  and  the  islands  or  promontories  immediately  to  the  south 
— is  rather  distinct  from  the  Bakwiri  on  the  north  and  the  Uuala  people  on  the  south, 
the  Isubu  dialect  being  a  separate  language  from  the  Duala,  though  closely  akin  to 


27 


28     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


towards  the  Cameroons,  attracted  no  doubt  by  the  magnificent 
extinct  volcano  which  at  some  twenty  miles  distance  from  the 
great  peak  of  Fernando  P6  rises  about  13,370  feet  straight 
up  from  the  seashore,  and  occasionally  has  its  highest  ridges 
flecked  with  snow.  In  the  beginning  of  1845  Merrick  visited 
Bimbia.  On  this  promontory  resided  a  somewhat  truculent 
slave-trading  "  king,"  who  had  taken  the  name  of  William 
ever  since  the  British  occupied  Fernando  P6  in  the  reign  of 


13.  THE  CAMEROONS  MOUNTAINS  SEEN  FROM  NEAR  FERNANDO  PO 


King  William  IV.  King  William  of  Bimbia  had  indeed 
allowed  Colonel  Nicholls  to  hoist  the  British  flag  over  his 
territory  some  ten  years  before  the  arrival  of  IMerrick,  and  it 
was  always  considered  down  to  the  sudden  irruption  of  the 
Germans  in  1884  that  Bimbia  as  well  as  the  adjoining  Ambas 
Bay  was  under  British  protection. 

It  was  not,  however,  till  1848  that  a  permanent  station  was 
established  by  the  Baptists  on  the  Bimbia  promontory,  for 

Bakwiri.  Merrick  made  a  special  study  of  the  Isubu  language,  chiefly  in  Scripture 
translations,  and  these  were  of  some  service  to  the  great  grammarian,  Dr.  W.  I.  Bleek. 
In  fact,  down  to  the  present  day  the  only  publislicd  authority  on  the  Isubu  language 
is  Merrick,  who  wrote  sixty  years  ago.  The  present  writer  has  made  a  considerable 
study  also  of  the  Isubu  language  with  the  aid  of  Duala  scholars  trained  in  the  Baptist 
mission  schools  in  the  Cameroons.  He  has  not  had  the  opportunity  hitherto  of 
publishing  his  researches. 


THE  CAMEROONS:  1845-87 


29 


King-  William  was  at  first  a  little  suspicious  about  their  settle- 
ment, as  he  was  anxious  to  continue  a  profitable  slave  trade 
with  British,  Portuguese,  and  Brazilian  captains,  and  feared 
that  the  mission- 
aries would  give 
information  to 
the  British  pre- 
ventive cruisers. 
It  was  therefore  in 
the  Duala  country 
of  the  Cameroons 
estuary  that  the 
Baptist  Mission 
erected  its  first 
permanent  estab- 
lishment. Alfred 
Saker  went  in 
1845  to  visit  King 
Bell  and  Chief  Di- 
do^ on  the  Duala 
shore.  Bell  ap- 
parently did  not 
offer  any  site  for 
a  mission  station, 
and  Chief  Dido  in 
doing  so  incurred 
the  anger  of  his 
superior,  King 
Akwa,  with  the 
result  that  Saker's 
first  attempt 
nearly  ended  in 
bloodshed.  But 
by  his  diplomacy 
he  appeased  the 
quarrel  and  induced  Dido  to  waive  his  claim  to  be  the  host  of  the 
Baptist  Mission  in  favour  of  King  Akwa,  in  whose  town  in  June 


14.  A  TYPICAL  DUALA  GENTLEMAN  OF  THE  OLDEN  TIME 

(ABOUr  1874) 

Shark  Dido,  of  Dido  Town,  Cameroons,  son  of  the  Chief  Dido  herein 
referred  to. 


1  Many  of  the  meaningless  or  ridiculous  names  borne  by  African  chiefs  or  head- 
men in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  are  derived  from  the  names  of  the 
British  cruisers  in  these  waters,  Chief  Dido  of  the  Cameroons  taking  his  name,  for 
example,  from  H.M.S.  Dido.  Or  the  names  were  taken  from  trading  ships,  or  were 
bestowed  by  the  humour  of  the  traders.  Very  often  a  real  native  designation  received 
a  misinterpretation  at  the  hands  of  the  English.  Thus,  King  Bell  (whose  dynasty 
afterwards  became  famous  as  that  which  sold  the  Duala  country  to  the  Germans)  was 
really  King  Mbeli  or  Mbela,  a  clan  name  amongst  the  Duala  chiefs. 


30     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


1845  was  established  the  first  Baptist  mission  station  on  the 
continent  of  Africa.  This,  after  the  fashion  of  the  time,  was 
called  Bethel.  It  remained  in  existence  down  to  1887  and  was 
then  transferred,  at  the  request  of  the  German  Government, 
to  the  Basel  Mission. 

The  Duala  people,  amongst  whom  the  Baptist  Mission  was 
to  play  an  important  role,  was  a  tribe  of  considerable  potency, 
though  not  very  numerous.  By  tradition  they  had  reached 
the  shores  of  the  Cameroons  estuary  some  one  hundred  and 
fifty  to  two  hundred  years  ago,  coming,  they  alleged,  from  the 
north  or  north-east.^  The  progenitor  of  the  tribe  was  a 
chieftain  named  Mbeli  or  Mbela  who  had  two  sons,  Koli  and 
Duala.  Koli  became  the  ancestor  of  the  Isubu  people  of  Bimbia, 
and  Duala  "da  Mbeli"  originated  the  Ba-duala  of  the  Cameroons 
River.  Mbeli  (in  the  corrupted  European  form  of  Bell) 
remains  a  royal  clan  name.  They  displaced  the  Basa  tribe 
which  still  inhabits  the  "  bush  "  country  behind  the  Duala  on  the 
south,  but  which  does  not  differ  remarkably  from  the  Duala 
in  language.  If  this  legend  as  to  the  direction  from  which  the 
Duala  came  has  been  correctly  interpreted,  it  opens  up  a 
problem  in  Bantu  migrations,  for  the  Duala  language  is  much 
more  truly  Bantu,  much  less  corrupted  than  the  forms  of 
speech  like  the  Abo,  Bonken,  etc.,  which  seem  to  have  pre- 
ceded it  alonor  the  shores  of  the  Cameroons  River.  One 
might  therefore  have  concluded  that  the  Duala  had  approached 
the  Cameroons  from  the  south-east,  were  it  not  that  the 
Bakundu,  Isubu,  Bakwiri,  and  even  the  Bakundu  and  Barondo 
languages  of  the  upper  Mungo  River  and  the  northern 
Cameroons  coast  are  also  akin  to  Duala  (Bakundu,  especially) 
and  are  more  typically  "  Bantu  "  than  the  pre-existing  languages 
of  the  Cameroons  basin. 

Not  only  in  their  language,  however,  but  also  in  physique 
and  capacity  for  civilization,  the  Duala  people  suggest  closer 
affinities  with  a  superior  Bantu  type  of  the  Upper  Congo  and 
of  the  Great  Lakes  region.  They  are  sometimes  quite  light 
in  skin,  with  intelligent  faces  and  good  brain  development. 
Their  physique  was  once  splendid,"  though  towards  the  close 
of  the  nineteenth  century  they  began  to  exhibit  some  de- 

*  Grenfell  held  that  they  had  come  up  from  the  souths  and  were  originally  settled 
on  the  Lungasi  River.  His  proposition  is  more  tenable  on  linguistic  grounds. 
Language  relationships  make  a  directly  eastern  origin  of  the  Duala  improbable. 

"  Large-framed,  sinewy,  and  well-developed  in  every  limb,  the  Duala  is  a  fine 
specimen  of  the  genus  Homo''''  [George  Allan].  Allan  describes  the  Duala  as  almost 
fastidiously  clean.  From  the  age  of  three  or  four  days  old,  each  true  Duala  infant 
must  be  bathed  in  the  Cameroons  River.    Thenceforth  it  is  bathed  every  day,  either 


THE  CAMEROONS:  1845-87 


31 


generacy  from  the  curses  of  alcohol  and  venerea.!  disease  in- 
troduced by  Europeans. 

Although  a  fine,  intelligent  people,  they  were  bloodthirsty 
and  quarrelsome.  The  ruling  families  of  Bell  (Mbeli)  and 
Akwa  seem  to  have  carried  on  a  perpetual  feud.  The  Bell 
clan  occupied  the  south  bank  of  the  estuary  near  the  sea. 
Then  ensued,  east  of  King  Bell's  town,  a  mile  or  so  of 
neutral  ground  made  uninhabitable  by  civil  war,  and  eastwards 
ag-ain  followed  the  towns  of  Kinor  Akwa  and  his  subordinate 
chiefs. 

In  the  early  'eighties  the  Duala  population  was  esti- 
mated at  about  twenty 
thousand,  of  whom 
some  thirteen  thou- 
sand were  slaves.  A 
kind  of  middle  class 
was  formed  by  those 
who  were  descended 
from  a  Duala  father 
by  a  slave  mother, 
and  finally  there  was 
a  small  aristocracy  of 
pure  Duala  blood, 
very  proud  of  their 
descent  from  the 
original  "  Duala  da  i5-  carved  duala  stool  belonging  to  a  chief 
Mbeli."  The  smallest 

admixture  of  slave  blood  in  a  man  was  sufficient  to  con- 
sign him  to  the  second  class  of  half-breeds.  This  middle 
class  led  a  very  precarious  existence  in  former  clays,  before 
the  German  rule  was  established.  Though  ostensibly  free  and 
owners  of  property,  they  could  take  no  part  in  the  discussion 
of  public  affairs,  and  if  they  became  wealthy  through  trade 
they  incurred  the  deadly  hatred  of  the  aristocrats,  the  pure 
Duala.  In  such  a  case  they  were  almost  invariably  accused  of 
witchcraft  and  killed  by  the  poison  ordeal.  The  thirteen 
thousand  slaves  were  rather  serfs  than  thralls,  and  were  very 
seldom  sold  or  exchanged.  At  that  period  they  were  easily 
distinguished  at  sight  from  the  true  Duala  aristocracy,  which 
was  always  of  much  finer  physical  development,  and  with  less 

until  it  dies  or  is  able  at  last  to  wash  itself  unaided.  Quite  a  large  proportion  of  the 
children  were  supposed  to  die  from  this  water  ordeal  within  a  month  of  their  birth  ; 
but  certainly  those  that  survived  were  of  very  strong  physique,  and  were  able  to  swim 
soon  after  they  could  walk,  and  to  paddle  a  canoe  when  only  four  or  five  years  old. 


32     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


marked  negro  features  than  the  serfs  or  bush  people  under 
'their  control. 

The  motives  of  the  Duala  people  were  mixed,  when  they 
invited  the  Baptists  to  establish  a  mission  amongst  them  in 
1845.  The  leading  chiefs  had  a  dim  idea  that  they  would  like 
their  children  taught  to  read  and  write.  They  also  thoroughly 
appreciated  the  material  civilization  which  the  Mission  promised 
to  introduce,  and  believed  that  the  missionaries  would  attract  a 
large  volume  of  commerce  to  the  country.  But  they  desired  all 
the  same  to  carry  on  a  trade  in  slaves. 

Between  1840  and  1877  there  was  a  marked  revival  of  the 
slave  trade  along  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  from  Dahome  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Congo.  The  southern  states  of  North 
America,  the  Spanish  colonies  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  and 
the  independent  republics  or  empires  of  Central  and  South 
America  had  a  pressing  need  for  negro  workers.  British  and 
French  action  at  sea,  and  establishment  of  colonies,  and  also 
the  direct  influence  of  the  United  States  in  Liberia,  had 
practically  closed  to  the  slavers  all  the  coast  of  northern 
Guinea  from  the  Senegal  to  the  Volta.  Brazilians,  however, 
had  settled  in  Dahome  and  at  Lagos,  and  aided  by  one 
or  two  nefarious  Englishmen  and  Portuo^uese  half-castes, 
they  had  created  flourishing  slave  -  markets  at  Whydah, 
Lagos,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Cameroons,  and  on  the  Lower 
Congo. 

In  the  'sixties  the  position  of  the  Baptist  Mission  in  the 
Cameroons  was  greatly  endangered  by  the  intrigues  of  the 
slavers.  In  fact,  the  life  of  the  missionaries  on  the  Duala 
shore  between  1845  and  1870  was  a  precarious  one.  The 
Duala  chiefs  approved  of  education,  but  wanted  "  no  nonsense 
about  religion,"  especially  any  interference  in  sexual  matters. 
They  were  annoyed  because  Mission  converts  refused  to  take 
part  in  initiation  ceremonies  or  dances,  especially  those  of  an 
indecent  character.  Sometimes  the  women  converts  were 
seized  by  force  and  had  drugs  administered  to  them  or  rubbed 
into  them,  of  a  supposed  aphrodisiac  character,  which,  however, 
had  only  the  effect  of  poison  or  inducing  a  state  of  idiocy. 
Others  again  were  obliged  to  drink  an  infusion  of  poisonous 
"  nuts  "  {Strychnos  ?)  as  an  ordeal  to  prove  their  non-complicity 
in  cases  of  witchcraft.  Or,  if  they  were  slaves,  were  savagely 
mutilated  for  listening  to  the  Mission  teaching  without  the 
consent  of  their  masters. 

Saker  had  not  been  loncj  settled  at  Bethel  when  King  Akwa 
died.     "  Indescribable  scenes  of  disorder,  confusion,  and  wrong 


THE  CAMEROONS:  1845-87 


33 


ensued."  The  two  elder  brothers  quarrelled  and  intrigued  for 
the  succession.  The  houses  of  the  dead  chief  were  ransacked. 
Even  the  box  containing  his  remains  was  broken  open  and 
rifled  of  everything  of  value.  His  wives  and  slaves  destroyed 
the  dwelling  he  had  occupied.  The  town  was  given  up  to 
plunder.  In  October  the  Mission  premises  were  invaded : 
"  Knives,  spoons,  forks,  and  table-linen,  and  worst  of  all,  the 
flour  on  which  life  itself  depended,  together  with  the  goats  and 
fowls  were  carried  off"^  These  disorders  continued  till  the 
month  of  December,  when  a  British  gunboat  appeared  on  the 
scene,  and  through  the  intervention  of  the  naval  officers  the 
eldest  son  of  Akwa  was  declared  king,  and  peace  was  re- 
stored. 

In  the  middle  of  these  disputes  the  fifty  sons  of  King  Akwa 
wrangled  as  to  the  price  that  should  be  paid  by  Mr.  Saker  for 
the  plot  of  land  on  which  the  Mission  station  stood.  The 
amount  was  soon  settled,  but  the  purchase  was  followed  by 
incessant  bickerings  amongst  the  vendors  respecting  their 
shares,  and  constant  attempts  were  made  to  force  more  cloth 
and  trade  goods  from  the  Mission.  Three  days  after  the  pur- 
chase was  completed,  a  large  body  of  Akwa's  sons  and  slaves 
collected  together  armed  with  firebrands,  guns,  stones,  and 
swords,  and  with  wild  noise  and  shouting  demanded  possession 
of  the  house.  Reasoning  was  in  vain.  One  son  in  his  rage 
split  the  door  of  the  Mission  house  with  his  axe  into  three 
pieces.  A  week  afterwards  another  assault  on  the  place  was 
made,  with  the  result  that  Mrs.  Saker  and  her  little  girl  nearly 
died  from  mental  agitation  and  lack  of  food.  But  at  last  some 
of  the  better-natured  amoncrst  the  chiefs  interfered,  and  a  oroat 
was  given  to  the  Mission  as  some  compensation  for  the  damage. 
Never  after  this  was  the  actual  Mission  station  in  such  danger 
of  destruction,  though  the  work  of  the  Mission  was  once  or 
twice  threatened  by  serious  conspiracies,  directed  more  against 
the  destruction  of  the  converts  than  the  missionaries  them- 
selves. 

But  Saker  was  not  easily  dismayed.  Almost  while  the 
naked,  bloodthirsty,  drunken  savages"^  were  battering  at  his 
doors  he  was  plodding  away  at  the  composition  of  a  Duala 
vocabulary,  in  fact,  finishing  the  draft  of  his  first  class-book 

'  From  Alfred  Saker,  etc. :  A  Biography,  by  Dr.  E.  B.  Underhill,  1884. 

^  The  Duala  people  at  this  time  and  for  many  years  afterwards  were  remarkable 
amongst  the  coast  populations  for  their  nudity.  The  Mission  interfered  no  more  with 
this  than  to  inculcate  some  sense  of  decency  in  the  men.  The  young  unmarried 
women  went  absolutely  naked  down  to  the  days  of  German  administration,  no  one 
seeing  any  harm  in  the  practice. 

I. — D 


34     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


which  was  to  go  home  to  England  to  be  printed  for  use  in  the 
Duala  schools. 

By  the  close  of  1846  Saker  had  made  some  journeys  of 
exploration  through  the  Basa  country  to  the  south  of  the  Duala 
towns. 

In  1847  he  describes  his  life  thus: — "  During  the  day  I 
have  not  time  to  sit  down  to  eat  bread  except  for  a  few  minutes 
at  nine  and  five.  I  sit  at  my  books,  teach  boys,  labour  with 
my  tools.  One  day  a  carpenter,  another  a  blacksmith,  another 
a  joiner,  another  a  shipwright,  or  whatever  is  necessary.  But 
my  chief  and  all-important  work  at  present  is  the  study  of  the 
Duala  language,  the  preparation  of  elementary  books,  the 
translation  of  the  Gospels,  etc.  This  comes  every  day,  and  all 
other  things,  such  as  necessary  repairs  or  needful  occupations, 
are  attended  to  for  recreation." 

He  was  passionately  anxious  to  obtain  a  printing  press,  and 
made  many  shifts  to  supply  one.  His  inventiveness,  aided  by 
a  knowledge  of  iron  work  and  engineering,  enabled  him  to  make 
a  matrix  and  to  construct  a  rude  press,  but  he  was  soon  at  a 
standstill  for  lead  to  found  type,  and  waited  wearily  for  the 
chance  of  obtaining  it  from  a  passing  ship.  In  1848  he  asked 
the  Committee  of  the  Society  to  devote  a  portion  of  his  salary 
to  the  purchase  of  books  for  the  foundation  of  a  good  refer- 
ence library. 

In  this  year  he  moved  over  for  a  time  to  Clarence, 
Fernando  P6,  partly  to  repair  his  health.  Here  he  received  his 
first  printing  press.  Another  was  also  despatched  at  the  same 
time  to  Merrick's  station  at  Bimbia,  and  native  boys  were  being 
taught  to  print.  A  sugar  mill  was  afterwards  sent  out  by  a 
supporter  of  the  mission.  Sir  Morton  Peto. 

Summing  up  the  results  of  Mission  work  in  Fernando  P6 
and  the  Cameroons  at  the  end  of  1849,  Saker  mentions  that 
they  had  introduced  the  bread-fruit  tree,  pomegranate,  mango, 
avocado  pear,  and  mammee  apple,  "fruits  of  great  value,  and 
all  suitable  to  the  climate"  (brought  from  the  West  Indies); 
they  distributed  clothing  to  about  twenty  thousand  persons,  and 
medical  assistance  to  nearly  the  same  number. 

By  September  1850  Saker  had  again  taken  up  his  abode  in 
King  Akwa's  town,  and  in  1851  he  began  to  explore  the  slopes 
of  the  Cameroons  Mountain.  On  returning  to  the  Duala  towns 
he  had  resolved  to  face  and  overcome  the  difficulty  about  the 
white  ants.  These  termites  had  destroyed  most  of  the  wattle 
and  daub  and  plank  houses  erected  by  the  Mission.  Bricks 
seemed  the  only  remedy.    At  the  very  beginning  of  1852  he 


THE  CAMEROONS:  1845-87 


35 


recorded  "  a  complete  success  in  making  botli  building  bricks 
and  paving  tiles."  "  For  some  weeks  past  my  brick  yard  has 
been  in  active  operation.  Ten  thousand  bricks  are  now  ready, 
and  we  are  making  two  thousand  a  week."  Native  boys  were 
being  sent  to  him  for  instruction  in  brick-making.  Prior  to 
this  success  his  efforts  had  been  greeted  with  derision  by  the 
natives,  but  they  were  now  so  impressed  by  the  results  of  the 
brick  yard  that  from  that  day  onwards — say,  the  ist  of  January 
1852 — the  Duala  steadily  set  their  faces  towards  civilization. 
The  actual  converts  to  Christianity  were  persecuted  by  their 
countrymen,  it  is  true,  and  prevented  from  engaging  in  the 
ordinary  avenues  of  trade.  Saker  advised  them  to  "  cultivate 
more  ground,  raise  and  sell  provisions,  plant  cotton,  and 
open  new  sources  of  trade.  .  .  .  Make  bricks,  and  I  will  pay 
you." 

But  the  possession  of  bricks  was  of  little  avail  without 
mortar  to  cement  them  together.  This  was  eventually  obtained 
by  collecting  large  quantities  of  oyster  shells  and  burning  them 
for  lime.  Though  the  quarrelling  amongst  the  different  factions 
of  the  Duala  people  and  between  the  adherents  of  the  too 
numerous  chieftains  still  continued,  the  education  of  the  Duala 
people  went  on  steadily  from  1852  until  in  1884  the  Duala 
banks  of  the  Cameroons  were  in  some  respects  far  more  like  a 
well-ordered  British  colony  than  parts  of  Sierra  Leone  or  the 
Gold  Coast  at  the  same  period.  Most  of  the  young  men  of 
the  Duala  towns  could  speak,  read,  and  write  in  English,  and 
had  a  good  knowledge  of  arithmetic.  They  w^ere  skilled  car- 
penters, brickmakers,  printers,  and  agriculturists.  It  should  be 
added  in  justice  that  the  Mission  was  cordially  supported  in  its 
efforts  at  mediation  by  the  commanders  of  the  British  gunboats 
and  by  various  consuls,  who  beginning  with  the  celebrated 
Richard  Burton  succeeded  one  another  as  official  repre- 
sentatives of  British  law  in  these  regions. 

The  work  of  the  Mission  was  less  fortunate  in  the  Isubu 
country  to  the  north-west  of  the  Cameroons  estuary.  The 
people  here  were  being  rapidly  exterminated  by  the  witchcraft 
craze  which  has  done  so  much  to  destroy  life  all  over  negro  Africa. 
The  negroes  of  primeval  culture  attribute  most  forms  of  death 
not  to  natural  causes  but  to  occult,  to  the  action  of  witchcraft. 
The  witch  must  be  discovered  and  killed.  "Doctors"  freely 
charge  anyone  against  whom  they  or  the  chief  may  have  a 
grudge,  and  the  accused  must  drink  the  poison  water  (a 
decoction  of  a  nut  or  of  bark)  to  determine  innocence  or 
guilt. 


36     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


When  the  present  writer  was  administering  Nyasaland,  the 
population  of  the  Angoni  country  was  diminishing  as  from  an 
epidemic  by  the  continual  deaths  resulting  from  witchcraft 
accusations.  So  in  the  Bimbia  peninsula  during  the  middle 
of  the  last  century/  Saker  writes  : — The  means  of  existence 
were  failing  ;  the  land  ceased  to  be  cultivated  ;  fishermen  no 
longer  plied  their  calling,  incessantly  harassed  as  they  were  by 
trials  for  witchcraft.  The  endless  fighting  cut  off  the  supplies 
of  yams  and  maize  from  the  interior.  If  one  man  toiled  to 
feed  his  family,  his  canoe  was  burnt  and  his  home  invaded 
until  the  devastation  was  complete,  and  hunger  pined  in  every 
corner."  Not  only  did  famine  ensue,  but  disease  increased  its 
ravages,  for  failure  to  cultivate  meant  the  growth  of  bush  and 
grass  with  increased  harbourage  for  mosquitoes  and  the  con- 
sequent spread  of  malarial  fever. 

Although  this  cause  of  the  disease  was  unknown  to  Saker, 
he  notes  the  correlation  of  the  cessation  of  cultivation  and 
clearing  awav  of  the  bush  with  the  growth  of  malarial  fever. 
Consequently  for  a  time  the  station  at  King  William's  town  in 
Bimbia  was  given  up,  though  it  was  subsequently  re-estab- 
lished, only,  however,  to  be  finally  abandoned  for  much  the 
same  reasons  in  1870. 

In  1855  Saker  was  at  last  persuaded  to  take  a  holiday  in 
England,  but  he  scarcely  remained  away  more  than  three 
months.  By  this  time  the  steamers  of  the  African  Steamship 
Company  had  begun  to  ply  regularly  along  the  West  Coast  of 
Africa  from  Plymouth  or  Liverpool  to  Madeira,  Tenerife,  and 
Sierra  Leone  down  to  the  Cameroons  and  the  Congo.  This 
was  an  extraordinary  boon  to  missionaries  as  well  as  to  the 
increasing  number  of  traders,  as  it  obviated  the  dreary  three 
months'  voyage  out  and  home  by  way  of  the  W^est  Indies  in  a 
sailing  ship.^ 

In  1858  Saker  had  to  grapple  with  the  situation  in  Fernando 
P6.  The  Spanish  Government  had  withdrawn  even  the  very 
grudging  permission  accorded  to  Prince,  Clarke,  and  Saker  in 
1846  for  the  carrying  on  of  their  form  of  worship  by  stealth. 

1  Poison  ordeals  reduced  the  Bimbia  population  from  an  approximate  10,000  in 
1843  to  scarcely  200  in  1885.  — H.  H.  J. 

-  Nevertheless  the  West  Indian  apprenticeship  through  which  West  Africa 
passed  during'  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  by  reason  of  the  sailing  ships 
having  to  use  the  Trade  Wind  route  via  the  West  Indies  was  of  some  service  to  this 
ill-furnished  part  of  the  world,  for  it  enabled  Government  officials  and  missionaries 
to  introduce  from  the  West  Indies  into  West  Africa  many  useful  trees  and  food  plants. 
In  fact  this  was  the  second  American  colonization  of  Africa  (so  far  as  fauna  and  flora 
were  concerned),  the  first  being  due  to  the  introduction  by  the  Portuguese  of  Bra- 
zilian animals  and  plants  between  the  sixteenth  and  the  early  eighteenth  centuries. 


THE  CAMEROONS:  1845-87 


37 


Henceforth — from  1858  onwards — there  were  to  be  no  Baptist 
missionaries,  no  Baptist  congregations  or  chapels  in  Fernando 
P6.  All  neoToes  were  to  conform  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
faith.  Consequently  in  that  year — 1858 — Saker  had  decided 
to  transfer  the  English-speaking  Protestant  colony  of  Port 
Clarence  to  a  new  territory  on  the  mainland  of  the  Cameroons. 
A  good  many  negroes,  more  or  less  of  Sierra  Leone  origin, 
declined  to  follow  him,  being  too  much  attached  to  the  soil  of 
Fernando  P6  to  care  much  about  religious  questions.  But  those 
families  who  decided  to  leave  were  established  along  the  shores 
of  Ambas  Bay  on  a  territory  purchased  by  the  Mission  from 
the  Bakwiri  and  Isubu  native  chiefs,  mostly  from  King  William 
of  Bimbia.  A  township  was  founded,  laid  out,  and  christened 
Victoria.  It  was  intended,  indeed,  by  the  Baptist  Mission  to 
create  an  imitation  of  Liberia  on  the  shores  of  Ambas  Bay,  a 
nucleus  of  similar  free  communities  of  negroes,  but  curiously 
enough,  this  project  never  succeeded.  The  vigorous  work  of 
the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  was  carried  on  either  in  the 
Duala  country  along  the  Cameroons  estuary  or  up  the  Mungo 
River  east  of  the  Cameroons  Mountain. 

The  scenery  of  Victoria  was  of  ravishing  beauty  (the 
present  writer  resided  at  intervals  on  Mondole  Island  in  face  of 
this  settlement  for  three  years,  from  1885  to  1888).  The  soil 
was  productive,  fish  was  abundant  in  the  waters  of  Ambas  Bay, 
but  the  negro  colony  of  West  Indian  or  ex-slave  origin  lan- 
guished inert  for  nearly  thirty  years  until  Germany  acquired 
this  last  British  foothold  in  the  Cameroons  in  1887.  The 
people  were  quiet  and  law-abiding,  got  on  well  with  the 
indigenes,  but  they  were  slothful,  and  rather  inclined  to 
drunkenness.  Indeed,  to  be  plain-spoken,  the  Baptist  Mission 
throughout  made  a  poor  success  in  its  devoted  attempts  to 
repatriate  the  Americanized  negro,  or  even  to  educate  the 
ex-slave.  They  only  forged  ahead  with  abundant  success 
when  dealing  with  native  populations  in  a  state  of  independence. 

In  fact,  it  has  been  one  of  the  undoubtedly  bad  results  of 
the  slave  trade  that  it  has  not  only  caused  negroes  to  be 
expatriated,  snapping  their  family  ties  and  all  connection  with 
their  fatherland,  but  it  has  in  the  first  generation  made  the 
same  people  feckless,  craven,  hopeless,  immoral,  broken-spirited, 
with  little  more  ambition  than  a  satisfaction  of  animal  desires. 
The  descendants  of  the  slave  parents  were  often  well-educated, 
upright,  decent  people  ;  but  they  had  become  so  markedly  im- 
pressed with  the  European  culture  of  America,  so  accustomed  in 
physique  to  the  American  climate  and  American  comforts,  that 


38     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


they  wilted  and  lost  heart  and  energy  when  transplanted  to  the 
unhealthy  climate  and  comfortless  savagery  of  West  Africa. 
America  had  been  the  cause  of  their  parents'  slavery,  but 
America  was  to  them  what  Spain  will  always  be  to  the 
Mediterranean  Jew  and  Natal  to  the  native  of  Southern  India 
— a  new  fatherland  infinitely  dearer  than  the  continent  of  their 
miserable  past  and  present. 

In  1862  the  work  of  the  Baptist  Mission  in  the  Cameroons 
attracted  a  visit  from  Richard  Burton,  who  in  the  preceding 
year  had  been  appointed  (as  a  not  very  adequate  reward  for  his 
discovery  of  Lake  Tanganyika)  British  Consul  for  Fernando  P6 
and  the  Bights  of  Biafra  and  Benin. ^  Burton  had  been  pre- 
ceded as  a  Cameroons  explorer  by  a  celebrated  botanist,  Gustav 
Mann,  a  member  of  the  British  Niger  Expedition,  detailed  by 
Sir  William  Hooker  for  the  examination  of  the  mountain  flora 
of  Fernando  P6  and  the  Cameroons."  Burton  wished  more 
especially  to  ascend  the  Cameroons  Mountain  to  its  highest 
summit,  and  Mann  had  prepared  the  way  for  this  ascent  by 
discovering  sources  of  water  supply  (water,  strange  to  say,  is 
very  deficient  on  the  upper  Cameroons),  and  had  founded  base 
camps  from  which  the  exploration  of  the  higher  craters  might 
be  made.  Merrick,  the  Baptist  missionary  of  Bimbia,  had 
attempted  to  ascend  Cameroons  Mountain  in  1847,  but  had  not 
climbed  higher  than  about  9,200  feet.  The  distance  from 
Ambas  Bay  to  the  summit  is  about  fourteen  miles,  but  Merrick 
suffered  greatly  from  the  lack  of  water,  and  had  to  return.  The 
Bakwiri  and  Buea  natives  along  the  southern  slopes  of  the 
mountain  were  not  very  well  disposed  towards  these  explora- 
tions. Merrick  had  died  in  1849,  and  Saker's  presence  on  and 
around  the  mountain  was  necessary  to  pacify  the  natives  and 
compose  quarrels  which  had  arisen  between  them  and  Mr.  Mann 
or  the  followers  of  Captain  Burton.  Saker  accompanied  Burton 
on  his  ascent  of  the  mountain,  another  member  of  the  party, 
besides  Mr.  Mann,  being  Seiior  Calvo,  the  Spanish  Judge  of 
Fernando  P6  ;  so  that  in  the  first  ascent  of  the  highest  point  in 
the  whole  of  West  Africa  England,  Germany,  and  Spain  were 
represented.  Saker  carried  out  hypsometrical  observations  of  his 
own  which  have  been  a  useful  check  on  those  of  Captain  Burton 
and  of  other  explorers  in  determining  the  height  of  Victoria  Peak. 

1  Earlier  in  the  nineteenth  century  this  post  (then  called  Superintendent  of  Fer- 
nando P6)  had  been  held  by  another  African  explorer,  Major  Denham,  who  had 
accompanied  Clapperton  to  Lake  Chad. 

-  This  remarkable  pioneer  of  science  in  Western  Equatorial  Africa  is  still  living, 
at  Munich,  after  many  years  of  service  under  the  British  Government,  not  only  in 
West  Africa,  but  in  the  Indian  Forest  Department. 


THE  CAMEROONS:  1845-87 


41 


In  the  period  between  1863  and  1869  some  trouble  came 
into  Saker's  life,  not  only  through  constant  deaths  and  sickness 
amongst  the  missionaries  or  their  wives  and  children,  but 
through  friction  with  some  of  his  colleaoues.  This  arose  over 
two  divergent  opinions  as  to  the  main  object  of  Mission  work 
in  the  Cameroons.  The  younger  members  of  the  Mission — 
men  recently  arrived  from  England — complained  that  Saker's 
work  lacked  "spirituality"  :  that  he  devoted  his  life  so  enthusi- 
astically to  printing,  translating,  language  study,  brick-making, 
carpentry,  agriculture,  and  secular  instruction  that  very  little  time 
was  left  for  preaching  and  theology.  At  last,  at  the  close  of  1869, 
the  home  Committee  decided  to  despatch  Dr.  E,  B.  Underbill 
to  report  on  the  almost  open  quarrel  which  had  arisen  between 
Saker  and  the  younger  missionaries.  Dr.  Underbill  unfortun- 
ately lost  his  wife  (who  accompanied  him)  from  over-exposure  to 
the  sun  at  the  close  of  his  stay  on  the  Cameroons  River  and 
after  a  somewhat  exhausting  tour  round  all  the  mission  stations; 
but  his  report  was  a  triumphant  vindication  of  Saker's  methods. 
At  this  distance  of  time  it  is  not  necessary  to  take  up  the 
cudgels  on  Saker's  behalf.  The  permanent  civilization  he  intro- 
duced into  the  Cameroons  is  there  as  a  witness  to  his  life's 
work  as  well  as  the  widespread  and  practically  useful  education 
he  left  amongst  the  Duala  people.  As  to  the  theology  which 
was  deemed  so  precious  in  1868,  it  is  doubtful  whether  it  would 
have  been  apprehended  or  cared  for  by  the  negroes  in  their 
then  condition,  and  the  discussion  of  dogmatic  questions  would 
certainly  not  have  provided  their  idle  hands  with  useful,  steady- 
ing work. 

In  1874,  Saker  after  a  holiday  in  England  returned  to  the 
Cameroons  for  his  last  sojourn,  and  the  Baptist  Mission  entered 
on  a  new,  and  what  might  have  been  but  for  German  interven- 
tion, a  most  successful  development.  George  Grenfell  accom- 
panied the  veteran  missionary,  and  in  1876  they  were  joined  by 
Thomas  Comber,  destined  like  Grenfell  to  be  one  of  the  great 
pioneers  on  the  Congo. 

Comber  also  ascended  the  Cameroons  Mountain,  and  made 
an  important  journey  of  exploration  (probably  the  first  per- 
formed by  any  European)  round  the  Bomboko  country  to  the 
land  of  the  Bakundu  and  the  western  affluents  of  the  Muno^o 
River  north  of  the  great  Cameroons  volcano.  He  discovered 
and  named  little  Lake  Rickards,  and  the  more  important  sheet 
of  water  Barombi  ba  Koto  :  both  of  them  crater  lakes,  the 
last  named  possessing  an  island  in  the  middle  which  was  the 
home  of  thousands  of  grey  parrots.    The  parrots  flew  over  to 


42     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


the  mainland  every  morning  to  feed  on  the  crops  and  the  wild 
fruits  and  returned  in  screaming  flocks  every  evening  to  roost 
with  security  on  the  island  trees.  Comber  subsequently  as- 
cended the  Mungo  River  for  sixty  miles  above  its  confluence 
with  the  Cameroons  estuary  and  laid  the  foundations  of  a 

mission  station  in  the 
Bakundu  country 
which  was  afterwards 
occupied  by  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Lewis. 

Alfred  Saker  left 
the  Cameroons  finally 
at  the  end  of  1876, 
and  died  at  Peckham 
in  March  1880.  His 
daughter,  Miss  Emily 
Saker,  has  done  much 
to  edit  and  amplify 
his  remarkable  linou- 
isticworkin  theDuala 
language.  His  son- 
in-law,  the  late  Rev. 
Ouentin  Thomson — 
long  time  a  worker 
in  the  Cameroons 
— compiled  under 
Saker's  directions  a 
vocabulary  of  the 
Bakwiri  lanofuacje  at 
Cameroons  Moun- 
tain. Much  else  of 
Saker's  researches 
into  Cameroons  lan- 
Quao-es  remained  in 
manuscript  in  the 
Mission  librarv  at 
Akwa  town  and  was 
destroyed  (accidentally  of  course)  when  the  Germans  burnt  the 
Mission  buildings  in  their  bombardment  of  1884. 

As  to  outside  appreciation  of  his  life's  work  in  the 
Cameroons,  Livingstone  wrote  of  him  in  the  later  'sixties  of  the 
last  century  :  "  Take  it  all  in  all,  specially  having  regard  to  its 
many-sidecl  character,  the  work  of  Alfred  Saker  at  Cameroons 
and  Victoria  is,  in  my  judgment,  the  most  remarkable  on  the 


17.  ALFRED  SAKER 
From  a  photograph  taken  about  1873. 


THE  CAMEROONS:  1845-87 


43 


African  coast.'  Win  wood  Reade  somewhat  later  recorded  this 
further  appreciation  : — 

"  I  do  not  at  all  understand  how  the  changes  at  Cameroons  and 
Victoria  have  been  brought  about.  Old  sanguinary  customs  have  to  a 
large  extent  been  abolished  ;  witchcraft  hides  itself  in  the  forest ;  the 
fetish  superstition  of  the  people  is  derided  by  old  and  young,  and 
well-built  houses  are  springing  up  on  every  hand.  It  is  really  marvel- 
lous to  mark  the  change  that  has  taken  place  in  the  natives  in  a  few 
years  only.  From  actual  cannibals  many  have  become  honest,  in- 
telligent, well-skilled  artisans.  An  elementary  hterature  has  been 
established,  and  the  whole  Bible  translated  into  their  own  tongue, 
hitherto  an  unwritten  one.  There  must  be  surely  something  abnormal 
about  this." 

George  Grenfell  began  his  missionary  exploration  of  these 
regions  in  1875.  By  1878  (and  a  short  visit  in  1880)  he  had 
surveyed  and  mapped  a  good  deal  of  the  southern  aspect  of 
the  Cameroons  Mountain,  had  ascended  the  Mungo  River,  the 
Yabiang  or  Abo,  the  VVuri  or  main  Cameroons  River,  and  the 
Lungasi  (Dibamba)  River.^  Most  important  of  all,  however, 
was  his  discovery  in  its  lower  course  of  the  Edea  River  (as 
he  called  it),  that  stream  which  is  now  known  by  the  name 
of  Sanaga.-  This  is  by  far  the  longest  and  most  important 
river  which  is  part  of  the  Cameroons  system.  Its  main 
course  enters  the  sea  on  either  side  of  Malimba  Island  indepen- 
dently of  the  Cameroons  estuary  ;  but  with  this  estuary  or 
delta  it  is  also  connected  by  the  Kwakwa  branch,  so  that  it 
may  be  held  legitimately  to  be  one  of  the  Cameroons  rivers, 
and  no  doubt  its  great  volume  of  water  has  in  past  times 
entered  the  Cameroons  estuary  by  a  more  direct  course,  and 
has  played  an  important  part  in  the  formation  of  that  consider- 
able area  of  brackish  mangrove  swamps. 

Grenfell  appears  to  have  ascended  the  highest  summits  of 
the  Cameroons  Mountain  (Mongo  ma  Loba)  in  1878.  But 
though  he  explored  the  Wuri  (Cameroons)  River  to  the 
country  of  Budiman  (whither  the  present  writer  went  a  few 
years  later),  and  also  its  Dibombe  affluent,  he  does  not  seem  to 
have  observed  the  fantastic  Kupe-Manenguba  range,  so  strik- 
ing a  feature  on  the  north-eastern  horizon  in  clear  weather, 

'  When  Grenfell  went  to  the  Lungasi  River  in  1877  the  chief's  medicine  man 
brought  a  live  turtle  and  made  the  party  swear  they  had  come  to  do  no  one  any 
harm.  They  had  to  take  this  oath  by  knocking  the  shell  of  the  turtle  with  their 
knuckles  and  calling  down  death  on  themselves  if  they  defaulted. 

-  Sometimes  spelt  Sannaga  or  Sananga.  The  word  seems  to  be  connected  with 
a  common  Bantu  root  for  river  or  island — S<nij;-a. 


44     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


with  peaks  which  attain  altitudes  of  nine  and  ten  thousand 
feet. 

He  refers  repeatedly  to  the  difficulty  of  penetrating  up  the 
various  rivers  farther  than  the  first  rapids,  owing  to  the 
jealousy  with  which  the  coast  natives  regarded  any  attempts 
on  the  part  of  Europeans  to  reach  the  tribes  behind  them,  for 
whom  they  acted  in  commerce  as  middlemen.  He  travelled 
however  to  the  country  of  Endokoko  (up  the  Wuri)  and  there 
came  into  contact  with  representatives  of  the  interior  tribes, 
who  in  their  trading  operations  had  travelled  far  enough  to  the 


l8.  THE  MANENGUBA  MOUNTAINS,  NORTH-WEST  OF  CAMEROONS  RIVER, 
AS  OP.SEkVEI)  BY  THE  AUTHOR  IN  1886 


north-east  to  come  in  contact  with  Hausa  traders,  "  Muham- 
madan  people  riding  on  donkeys,  clothed  like  Arabs,"  and 
believed  by  Grenfell  himself  to  be  Arabs  ;  though  it  is  highly 
improbable  that  any  pure-blooded  Arab  has  penetrated  so  far 
into  Equatorial  West  Africa  as  the  hinterland  of  the  Cameroons. 
Hausas,  and  possibly  a  Fula  raider  or  two,  had  already  brought 
within  their  tradino^  and  raiding^  influence  the  semi-Bantu 
regions  lying  between  the  watershed  of  the  Cameroons  estuary 
and  that  of  the  upper  Benue. 

Let  us  try  to  see  the  Cameroons  region  as  Grenfell  saw  it 
and  described  it  in  his  communications  to  the  Royal  Geo- 
graphical Society  and  in  private  letters.  Arriving  from  Europe, 
and  skirtinp-  the  West  Coast  of  Africa,  the  traveller  bound  for 


THE  CAMEROONS:  1845-87 


45 


the  Cameroons  has  noticed  mountains  of  two  to  three  thousand 
feet  rising  straight  up  from  the  sea  coast  in  parts  of  French 
Guinea,  and  notably  in  the  Sierra  Leone  peninsula.  After  that 
the  coast  gradually  sinks  lower  and  lower,  till  along  the  Ivory 
Coast  it  is  little  more  than  a  rim  of  tall  trees  lining^  the  shores 
of  lagoons.  In  the  western  part  of  the  Gold  Coast  low  hills 
appear  and  break 
the  monotony  of 
the  outline,  but 
from  the  eastern 
part  of  the  Gold 
Coast  right  round 
the  Niger  Delta 
the  littoral  is  so 
flat  that  were  it 
not  for  occasional 
tall  trees  the  land 
would  be  scarcely 
discernible  until 
the  ship  had 
grounded.  But 
when  you  have 
passed  the  Niger 
Delta,  the  en- 
trance to  the  Old 
Calabar  River, 
and  the  estuary  of 
the  Rio  del  Rey, 
you  begin  to  be 
awarein  thesouth- 
east  of  high  land. 
Dim  blue  moun- 
tain peaks  show 
themselves  above  19.  the  little  cameroons  peak 

a   shore   line  of 

lofty  forest  which  is  no  longer  swamp.  Away  to  the  south,  the 
pyramid  of  the  Fernando  P6  Mountain  rises  above  the  sea 
horizon,  and  opposite  to  it  is  the  great  ridge  of  the  Cameroons 
soaring  to  an  altitude  of  13,370  feet.  On  a  clear  day  all  the 
detail  of  this  volcanic  rano-e  can  be  scanned  throuoh  a  field- 
glass.  The  eye  travels  up  through  the  dense  forest  belt,  which 
ends  at  from  eight  to  nine  thousand  feet,  to  a  bare  grassy 
region  studded  with  small  craters.  The  loftiest  of  these  craters 
and  the  ridge  from  which  it  rises  are  sometimes  streaked  with 


46     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


snow,  though  the  snow  soon  melts  under  the  rays  of  the 
equatorial  sun.  An  object  that  is  disproportionately  striking  is 
the  Little  Cameroons  peak,  the  Mongo  ma  Etinde  of  the 
natives — a  black,  forested  cone,  which  rises  to  about  5,800 
feet  from  the  shore  on  the  north-western  flanks  of  the  great 
mountain.  This  is  also  an  extinct  crater.  After  a  heavy 
rain-storm  it  is  often  beautifully  draped  with  white  clouds 
in  the  manner  depicted  in  the  illustration,  which  was  drawn 
by  the  present  writer  from  the  deck  of  a  steamer.  At  the 
base  of  this  peak,  a  little  distance  from  the  shore,  is  a  rock, 
snow-white  with  birds'  oruano.  This,  together  with  Ambas  and 
Mondole  Islands,  is  the  remains  of  a  rocky  semicircle  round 
Ambas  Bay  which  is  possibly  the  sunken  rim  of  an  ancient 
crater. 

[Mondole  is  the  name  given  to  a  pretty  little  island  in 
Ambas  Bay  on  which  the  present  writer  once  built  a  Vice- 
Consulate.  Its  steep  slopes  are  densely  forested,  and  from  its 
summit  a  magnificent  comprehensive  view  of  the  Cameroons 
range  can  be  obtained.] 

On  the  continental  shore  of  Ambas  Bav  is  the  neat-look- 
ing  town  of  Victoria,  at  which  it  was  customary  for  either 
Grenfell  or  his  colleagues  to  reside  from  time  to  time. 

From  Victoria — in  the  days  of  which  I  am  writing — all 
explorers  like  Grenfell  started  to  make  their  ascent  of  the 
Cameroons  High  Peak.  The  path  led  first  of  all  through  some 
of  the  grandest  tropical  forest  in  the  world,  trees  rising  to  two 
and  three  hundred  feet  in  height,  their  trunks  garlanded  with 
parasitic  arums  and  orchids.  Huge  rubber  lianas  hung  in  loops 
and  twisted  coils  upon  the  limbs  of  the  giant  trees.  The  present 
writer  has  rarely  seen  a  parallel  in  magnificence  to  these  forests 
of  Ambas  Bay.  In  the  days  when  this  region  was  rarely  pene- 
trated by  a  European  explorer  they  were  tenanted  by  troops  of 
bold  chimpanzees,  a  little  inclined  to  resent  the  intrusion  of 
man.  The  native  settlements  of  the  Bakwiri  tribe  were  more 
confined  to  the  vicinity  of  the  seashore,  except  on  the  eastern 
flanks  of  the  mountain  in  the  direction  of  the  Mungo  River, 
where  the  powerful  native  confederacy  of  Buea  had  to  some 
extent  abated  the  forest.  Their  villages  and  plantations  exten- 
ded up  the  flanks  of  the  mountain  to  an  altitude  of  4,000  feet. 
Althouoh  this  magnificent  forest  behind  the  settlement  of  Vic- 
toria  was  drenched  with  moisture  from  the  equatorial  rams,  it 
was  not  well  supplied  with  running  streams;  in  fact,  one  charac- 
teristic of  the  Cameroons  volcanic  range  is  paucity  of  running 
water,  no  doubt  owing  to  the  porous  nature  of  the  volcanic  soil. 


THE  CAMEROONS:  1845-87 


47 


Consequently  an  ascent  of  the  mountain  was  apt  to  be  a  thirsty 
proceeding. 

At  about  4,000  feet  one  entered  the  region  of  tree-ferns, 
and  this  scenery  is  accurately  depicted  in  my  drawing  of  "Fern 
Gate."  At  about  7,350  feet  the  guide  halted  before  a  welcome 
spring  of  fresh  water,  named  after  its  discoverer,  the  botanist 
Mann.i 

Above 


at  about  7,500  feet,  the  vegetation  alters 


this  point 
its  aspect.  Bam- 
boos abound,  and  ' 
many  gaudy 
flowering  plants 
more  characteris- 
tic of  Abyssinia, 
the  East  African 
highlands,  and 
even  Europe.  At 
about  9,000  feet 
one  leaves  the 
forest  altogether, 
to  enter  on  an 
open  country  of 
grass,  everlasting 
fi  o  w  e  r  s  ,  s  u  n  - 
flowers,  senecios, 
hound's-tongue, 
clover,  violets, 
heather,  St.  John's 
wort,  chervil,  and 
other  "  Alpine  " 
vegetation.  This 
is  orrowing  a- 
mongst  the  grey 
scoriae. 

These  scoriae  are  like  the  frozen  froth  (in  purplish-grey)  of 
the  lava  streams,  now  solidified  into  immobility,  but  which  at 


20.  TRKK-FERNS  ON  THE  CAMEROONS  MOUNTAIN 
(The  pass  named  by  Burton  "  Fern  Gate.") 


1  "  A  little  runnel  of  pure  cold  water,  issuing  from  peaty  earth,  embowered  in  blue 
flowers,  and  surrounded  by  nettles."  (Alfred  Saker.)  Mann  puts  the  altitude  at 
7,800,  but  Grenfell  and  the  present  writer  both  at  7,350. 

"  It  was  held  by  common  consent  to  be  an  admirable  spot  for  a  sanatorium  or 
a  colony.  .  .  .  Captain  Burton  exclaimed,  'Where  can  a  Lebanon  be  found  equal  to 
the  beautiful,  majestic  Cameroons  ?"'  "  Here"  (says  .Saker)  "  we  had  a  glorious  sky, 
a  dry  air,  in  fact  an  English  home."  (Alfred  -Saker.) 

It  is  astonishing  and  inexplicable  that  the  practical  Germans  have  done  nothing 
with  such  a  hill  station. 


48     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


some  period,  probably  not  very  distant,  must  have  poured  forth 
from  the  craters  in  a  boihng  flood,  down  through  many  thou- 
sand feet  of  descent  till  they  were  choked  and  lost  in  the  tropical 
forest  belt,  or  even  till  they  were  cooled  and  turned  to  stone  by 
contact  with  the  sea.  The  great  ridge  of  the  mountain,  which 
extends  some  forty  miles  from  south-west  to  north-east,  is 
pimpled  with  almost  innumerable  craters,  large  and  small.  The 
loftiest,  and  one  of  the  largest,  is  that  known  as  the  High  Peak 
(Burton's  Mount  Victoria),  now  computed  to  be  about  13,370 
feet  in  altitude.  The  sides  of  this  Hiorh  Peak  are  grororeous  in 
colouring.  A  portion  of  the  western  slope  is  purple-black 
with  fine  cinders,  still  naked  of  vegetation  ;  but  elsewhere  the 
slopes  are  tapestried  and  carpeted  with  dense  moss  of  golden- 
yellow,  pale  straw-colour,  yellow-green,  crimson,  purple,  and 
olive. 

In  and  out  of  the  craters  in  this  grassy  region  above  the 
forest  wander — or  used  to  wander  in  the  days  when  Grenfell  and 
the  present  writer  separately  explored  these  regions  —  herds  of 
the  Bongo  tragelaph  and  of  the  large  West  African  bush-buck, 
also  perhaps  a  water-buck  [Cobus).  Natives  of  the  Bakwiri  and 
Buea  tribes  would  ascend  to  these  regions  for  hunting  purposes, 
and  further  passed  in  a  regular  trade  route  (reaching  to  an  alti- 
tude of  about  10,000  feet)  over  the  main  ridge  of  the  mountain 
to  markets  in  the  north,  in  the  countries  on  the  vercje  of  the 
Efik  or  Old  Calabar  region. 

From  the  High  Peak  itself  and  from  other  points  on  the 
central  ridge  magnificent  views  in  clear  weather  could  be 
obtained,  "  a  glorious,  map-like  picture,  embracing  river,  sea, 
and  land,"  as  Grenfell  writes  in  1882.  He  also  makes  frequent 
allusions  to  the  magnificent  cascade  known  as  the  Thomson^ 
Falls  near  Boanda,  at  an  altitude  of  1,800  feet.  But  this  cas- 
cade when  visited  by  the  present  writer  in  the  dry  season  was 
disappointing.  During  the  height  of  the  rains  a  large  volume 
of  water  falls  some  fifty  feet  with  a  roar  that  can  be  heard  at  a 
distance  of  a  mile. 

The  transition  in  point  of  scenery  and  climate  from  the 
Cameroons  Mountain  (with  its  outlying  spur  of  Bimbia)  to  the 
vast  mangrove  swamps  of  the  Cameroons  estuary  is  very 
abrupt.  This  estuary,  however,  offers  an  excellent,  capacious 
harbour  to  vessels  of  almost  any  size.    After  passing  Point 

^  Named  after  George  Thomson,  an  Englishman  of  independent  means,  who 
with  his  wife  settled  on  the  upland  country  behind  Mctoria,  and  though  not  belong- 
ing to  the  Mission  worked  with  it  to  make  the  Ambas  Bay  settlement  prosperous. 
Mr.  Thomson  attempted  to  found  a  sanatorium  high  up  on  the  Cameroons. 


21.  MOUNT  VICTORIA,  THE  HIGH  PEAK  OF  THE  CAMEROONS,  ABOUT 
13,370  FEET  IN  ALTITUDE.     SKETCHED  BY  THE  AUTHOR  IN  1886 
In  the  foreground  is  a  great  "stream  "  of  lava  and  scorijE. 


1. — E 


THE  CAMEROONS:  1845-87 


51 


Suellaba,  the  land  retreats  for  a  time  in  all  directions,  and  one 
appears  to  be  steaming  through  a  vast  lake  till  the  main  channel 
of  the  Cameroons  River  is  entered  off  the  Duala  shore.  Here 
is  situated  the  administrative  capital  of  the  whole  German 
colony  of  the  Cameroons,  now  known  as  the  town  of  Duala. 
In  Grenfell's  time  the  Duala  bank  of  firm  red  clay  (opposite  to 
which  were  extensive  mangrove  swamps)  was  divided  into  a 
number  of  independent  native  settlements,  ruled  by  several 
"  kings."  The  most  important  of  these  was  Bell  Town,  the 
appanage  of  that  dynasty  of  Duala  kings  whose  native  name 
of  Mbeli  or  Mbela  had  been  corrupted  by  the  English  traders 
into  Bell.  I  give  an  illustration  of  Bell  Town  beach,  with  the 
trading  hulks  and  shore  settlements,  as  it  was  in  1886,  just  after 
the  German  annexation  had  taken  place. 

The  swamps  above  and  below  the  Duala  shore  are  fre- 
quently rendered  beautiful  by  the  enormous  Lissochilus  orchids 
(Z.  giganteus).  The  actual  flower-spike  of  this  species  is  some- 
times three  feet  in  length  from  the  topmost  bud  to  the  lowest 
blossom,  and  the  flowers  themselves  are  of  red-purple  with  a 
golden  centre.  Behind  these  splendid  orchids — six  to  ten  feet 
in  heiorht  from  the  water's  edore — is  a  fantastic  backorround  of 
screw-pine  or  Pandanus,  or  the  willow-like  foliage  of  the  man- 
grove with  its  grey  branches  and  aerial  roots.  At  the  conflu- 
ence of  the  River  Yabiang  (Abo)  with  the  Wuri  stream, 
mangrove  and  Pandanus  give  way  completely  to  the  tropical 
forest  of  firm  land.  Then  the  forest  again  retreats  from  the 
riverside,  and  where  the  land  is  not  covered  with  native  planta- 
tions it  is  thickly  overgrown  with  jungle  reeds.  These  reed 
beds  are  the  haunts  of  innumerable  little  water-rails  of  glossy 
plumage,  chiefly  iridescent  blue  or  dark,  metallic,  blackish- 
green,  with  red  feet  and  beaks.  These  remarkably  beautiful 
little  birds  are  miniature  editions  of  the  large  blue  gallinules  of 
tropical  Africa.  They  are  frequently  caught  in  snares  by  the 
Duala  boys  and  kept  in  cages  as  pets. 

Grenfell,  as  already  related,  ascended  the  main  stream 
(Wuri)  of  the  Cameroons  as  far  as  the  Budiman  country  and 
the  first  cataracts  of  Endokoko.  Here  his  further  progress  was 
opposed  by  the  natives,  and  the  same  thing  happened  in  regard 
to  the  exploration  of  the  Mungo  River,  where  he  was  less 
successful  than  Comber.  In  these  river  journeys  Grenfell  was 
sometimes  allowed  to  borrow  the  steam  launches  sent  out  for 
the  use  of  British  and  German  trading-  firms  or  the  Helen  Saker 
of  the  Baptist  Mission.  It  was  by  means  of  a  steam  launch 
only  that  he  succeeded  in  reaching  the  Edea  (Sanaga)  River  by 


52     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


way  of  the  Kwakwa  Creek.  The  jealous  natives  would  have 
opposed  the  passage  of  ordinary  canoes. 

Grenfell  was  succeeded  as  an  explorer  of  the  Mungo  River 
by  his  colleague,  the  Rev.  Thos.  Lewis/  and  by  the  Polish 
traveller,  Stefan  Rogozinski.  Rogozinski  managed  to  appease 
the  natives  of  the  upper  Mungo  (he  discovered  the  lake 
Barombi  ba  Mbu),  but  his  expedition  was  actually  stopped  and 
broken  up  by  the  attacks  of  elephants.  In  those  days  there 
were  regions  to  the  north  of  the  Cameroons  Mountain  (as  I  can 
state  from  personal  experience)  actually  dominated  either  by 
chimpanzees  or  elephants,"  tracts  of  forest  in  which  either  the 
chimpanzees  or  the  elephants  were  so  numerous  and  so  hostile 
to  human  invasion  that  they  attacked  individuals  or  small 
companies  of  men  who  attempted  to  make  their  way  through  the 
woodland. 

During  the  rainy  season  between  April  and  October  the 
elephants  were  wont  to  pass  in  enormous  numbers  from  the  in- 
undated swamps  and  morasses  to  the  hill  country  of  Bakundu. 
It  might  occur  in  a  single  night  that  a  herd  of  elephants  trampled 
down  or  otherwise  destroyed  the  cultivated  food  crops  belonging 
to  a  whole  tribe.  "  They  do  not  (writes  George  Allan  ^) 
deliberately  attack  the  natives,  but  if  interfered  with,  they 
knock  them  down  and  trample  them  to  death." 

In  the  drier  season  of  the  year  they  resorted  to  mud  pools 
near  rivers  and  swamps,  where  they  rolled  about  until  they 
■caked  their  hides  with  a  sufficient  coating  of  mud  to  serve  as  a 
protection  against  the  elephant  fly,  an  insect  which  lays  its  eggs 
in  their  hides,  and  sometimes  inflicts  on  them  serious  pain  and 
disease.  At  night,  when  the  flies  retired  to  rest,  the  elephants 
made  for  great  rivers,  in  which  they  bathed  themselves  and 
swam  about  until  the  mud  coating  was  washed  off.  To  such  an 
extent  at  this  season  did  they  use  the  waterways  that  the  natives 
refused  to  travel  at  night  by  boat  or  canoe  owing  to  the  attacks 
on  them  which  the  elephants  would  make  out  of  sheer  mischief 
At  the  time  Mr.  Allan  wrote  (1885)  the  natives  usually  obtained 
their  ivory  from  the  elephants  that  became  entangled  in  bogs 

*  And  also  by  C.  H.  Richardson,  who  wrote  an  essay  on  the  Bakundu  language. 

^  To  the  north-west  of  the  Cameroons  Mountains  the  present  writer  once  stayed 
in  a  village  founded  by  the  Efik  people  from  Old  Calabar,  who  with  the  aid  of  a 
better  type  of  trade  gun  had  not  only  kept  the  elephants  at  bay,  but  had  obtained  the 
mastery  over  them.  The  broad  street  of  the  town  was  most  picturesquely  decorated 
on  either  side  with  an  orderly  array  of  enormous  elephant  skulls. 

^  George  Allan,  F.R.G.s.,  several  times  quoted,  was  a  trader  and  medical  practi- 
tioner, who  resided  in  a  hulk  on  the  Cameroons  from  1880  to  1889.  He  worked 
cordially  with  the  Baptist  missionaries,  and  rendered  great  services  gratuitously  to  all 
Europeans  and  natives  needing  medical  advice. 


THE  CAMEROONS:  1845-87 


55 


and  marshes  ;  for  the  elephants  of  the  Cameroons  interior  were 
so  wily  and  savage  that  the  native  who  attempted  to  kill  them 
with  the  trade  guns  of  that  period  or  with  lances  or  poisoned 
arrows  was  as  likely  as  not  killed  in  the  attempt.  The  present 
writer  when  he  ascended  the  Cameroons  River  in  1886  was 
told  by  the  Wuri  and  Bonken  people  that  large  numbers  of 
elephants  became  entombed  in  the  treacherous  bogs  of  the 
Cameroons  River  valley.  They  were  constantly  searching  after 
places  in  which  to  wallow  in  the  mud,  and  would  sometimes 
plunge  into  a  bog  too  deep  and  tenacious.  Here  they  were 
either  suffocated,  or  could  be  safely  attacked  by  the  natives 
when  abandoned  by  their  companions.  The  ground  which 
might  be  too  soft  for  the  passage  of  an  elephant  would  still 
afford  a  firm  footing  for  men. 

When  Grenfell  explored  the  Lungasi  or  Dibamba  River 
some  distance  to  the  east,  he  found  the  people  living  in  a  very 
primitive  condition,  prevented  as  they  themselves  were  by  the 
middlemen  of  the  Cameroons  estuary  from  trading  directly  with 
the  Europeans.  He  notes  that  the  Lungasi  or  Lungahii  negroes 
at  that  time  went  absolutely  naked.  Absolute  nudity  in  man  or 
woman  is  far  rarer  at  the  present  day  in  all  the  west  coast  regions 
of  Africa  than  it  is  in  the  east-central  portions  of  the  continent 
(the  valley  of  the  White  Nile,  the  eastern  part  of  the  Victoria 
Nyanza,  Masailand,  North  Nyasa,  and  north-central  Zambezia). 
The  French  explorer  Dinger  in  all  his  extensive  travels  in  the 
western  basin  of  the  Niger  behind  Liberia  and  the  Gold  Coast 
only  found  absolute  nudity  prevailing  amongst  the  Bobo-Fing 
in  a  district  far  removed  in  those  days  either  from  coast  influ- 
ence or  from  Muhammadan  conquest.  Nudity  in  both  sexes, 
however,  still  lingered  in  the  Efik  district  east  of  the  Niger  Delta 
in  the  'eighties  of  the  last  century,  and  also  in  those  countries 
verging  on  the  Cameroons  estuary.  Further  information  on 
this  point  is  given  in  chapter  xxii. 

Since  the  early  'sixties  a  Court  of  Equity  has  been  estab- 
lished in  the  Cameroons  River,  over  which  the  British  Consul 
generally  presided.  This  Court  was  attended  by  the  mis- 
sionaries, merchants,  and  principal  native  chiefs,  and  ad- 
ministered rough  justice  as  between  natives  and  Europeans. 
But  the  wranglings  amongst  the  Duala  chiefs,  interspersed 
with  outbreaks  of  civil  war,  continued  down  to  the  year  1880, 
though  after  a  bad  outbreak  in  1872  serious  fighting  had  ceased. 

'  A  section  of  the  great  tribe  of  Bakoko  or  Mvele,  a  people  said  to  be  related 
linguistically  and  otherwise  to  the  Fanwe  or  "  Fans."  The  contiguous  Bapiele  are 
reddish-skinned  Pygmies. 


56     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


But  when  the  revival  of  European  interest  in  West  Africa 
followed  Stanley's  and  De  Brazza's  exploits  in  Congoland  both 
Portugal  and  France  began  to  turn  their  eyes  towards  the 
unoccupied  Cameroons.  The  Duala  chiefs  to  avert  any  other 
fate  began  to  decide  in  favour  of  British  protection  or  annexa- 
tion as  the  only  means  of  securing  law  and  order  in  their 
country.  A  new  Consul  had  arrived  on  the  scene — Edward 
Hyde  Hewett — and  he  found  all  this  region  of  the  Oil  Rivers, 

from  the  Lasos 
colony  on  the  west 
to  the  French  Ga- 
boon on  the  south- 
east, ripe  for  in- 
clusion within  the 
British  Empire. 
Captain  Goldie 
Taubman  had  been 
unitino-  the  British 
companies  on  the 
Niger  and  buying 
out  the  French, 
building  up,  in  fact, 
what  was  to  become 
later  on  the  Royal 
Niger  Company.  A 
numberof  associated 
firms  of  Liverpool 
and  Manchester 
were  carrvingr  on  a 
wonderfully  pros- 
perous trade  in  Old 

23.  kiNi;  ■  I'KLi.'  OF  cAMERooxs:  TAKEx  ABOUT  1874    Calabar,  the  Niger 

Delta,  and  the  Came- 
roons; while  the  work  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  (Bonny), 
the  United  Presbyterian  Mission  (Old  Calabar),  and  the  Baptist 
Mission  (Cameroons)  had  spread  far  and  wide  a  knowledge  of  the 
Enolish  lanoruao-e.  In  1882  the  Duala  chiefs  tendered  a  formal 
request  for  annexation  to  the  British  Empire,  a  request  which 
was  endorsed  by  the  German  as  well  as  by  the  British  mer- 
chants in  the  Cameroons.  The  natives  pressed  for  the  im- 
mediate hoistinor  of  the  British  flag  in  November  1882.  But 
the  Consul  would  not  take  this  responsibility  on  himself  without 
reference  to  the  Foreion  Office.  He  ag-ain  returned  to  the 
Cameroons  in  April  1883,  but  delivered  no  decisive  answer. 


24-  LISSOCHILUS  ORCHIDS,  TEN  TO  FIFTEEN  FEET  HIGH,  GROWING  ON 
THE  CAMEROONS  RIVER 


THE  CAMEROONS:  1845-87 


59 


In  1883  King  Akwa  had  a  quarrel  with  the  German  house  of 
Woermann.  The  question  of  British  annexation  dragged  on 
till  the  early  summer  of  1884.  Meantime  the  Woermann  firm 
had  made  direct  proposals  to  King  Bell  to  sell  a  portion  of  his 
territory  to  Germany  and  accept  a  German  Protectorate. 
Consul  Hewett  by  some  chance  still  delayed  his  arrival,  though 
it  was  known  by  now  that  he  was  charged  with  full  powers  to 
annex  the  Cameroons  on  behalf  of  Great  Britain.  Curiously 
enough,  no  dread  was  entertained  of  German  intentions ;  it 
was  France  who  was  openly  moving  in  the  direction  of  the 
Cameroons  coast.    On  July  8  a  British  gunboat  arrived  to 


25.  THE  DUALA  SHORE  ("  IJELL  TOWN   BEACH  ")  UN  lyo; 


assure  the  people  that  Consul  Hewett  would  be  there  within 
a  week.  The  seven  days  elapsed,  but  he  did  not  come.  On 
the  iith  of  July  arrived  the  celebrated  German  explorer  and 
Commissioner,  Dr.  Nachtigal,  in  the  German  gunboat  Mowe. 
On  the  following  day,  July  12,  King  Bell  signed  a  treaty  with 
Dr.  Nachtigal,  by  the  provisions  of  which  the  Cameroons 
from  Bimbia  on  the  north  to  Batanga  on  the  south  were 
annexed  to  the  German  Empire.  So  far  as  native  rights  went, 
the  treaty  was  a  farce,  since  King  Bell  merely  owned  six 
square  miles  on  the  south  coast  of  the  Cameroons  estuary  ; 
but  of  course  with  the  power  of  Germany  behind  it  this  treaty 
was  eventually  extended  into  a  Protectorate  reaching  as  far  as 
Lake  Chad. 


6o     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Four  days  after  the  treaty  was  signed,  Consul  Hewett 
arrived,  to  find  the  German  flag  flying  from  King  Bell's  head- 
quarters. On  the  25th  of  July  a  French  gunboat  arrived,  also 
with  the  intention  of  annexing  the  Cameroons,  but  withdrew 
on  finding  that  the  Germans  had  accomplished  the  act.  Consul 
Hewett  then  proceeded  to  hoist  the  British  flag  over  all  the 
Cameroons  coast  between  Bimbia  and  the  Rio  del  Rey,  and  as 
much  of  the  hinterland  of  the  Cameroons  behind  Kino-  Bell's 


26.  THE  KK>[AiNIX(;  liAPTIST  MISSION  STATION  AT  SOPO,  IN  THE  CAMEROONS 

(Under  native  missionaries.) 


territory  as  was  not  actually  covered  by  the  German  flag.  The 
British  headquarters  in  this  region  was  practically  transferred 
to  \' ictoria,  Ambas  Bay,  a  settlement  which  was  annexed  out 
and  out,  whereas  much  of  the  Cameroons  territory  was  merely 
taken  under  British  protection. 

Bv  agreements  entered  into  between  the  two  Governments 
during  the  next  three  years,  the  British  flag  disappeared  en- 
tirely from  the  Cameroons  region,  Ambas  Bay  (the  govern- 
ment of  which  was  administered  by  the  present  writer  from 
1885  to  1887)  being  the  last  portion  to  be  handed  over  to 
German  rule. 


THE  CAMEROONS:  1845-87  61 


In  a  native  rising-  which  took  place  soon  after  King  Bell's 
action  was  discovered  (for  inasmuch  as  this  chieftain  only 
exercised  authority  over  six  square  miles,  his  brother  chiefs 
strongly  objected  to  their  territories  being-  sold  over  their 
heads)  the  Germans  directed  their  guns  on  King  Akwa's  town, 
where  stood  the  principal  buildings  of  the  Baptist  Mission. 
Some  of  these  were  shattered  and  ruined.  Others  were  occu- 
pied as  the  headquarters  of  the  German  Government. 

In  a  manner  which  history  will  describe  as  unnecessarily 
brutal,  the  Baptist  missionaries  were  practically  expelled  from 


27.  THE  HIGHEST  SUMMIT  OF  THE  CAMEKOUNS 
(Sketched  by  the  present  writer  in  1886.) 


the  Cameroons  by  the  German  authorities,  owing  to  their  great 
influence  over  the  people.  In  spite  of  all  protests  from  the 
British  Government,  and  a  popular  misconception  to  the 
opposite  effect,  Germany  never  gave  one  penny  of  compen- 
sation to  the  Baptist  Mission  for  its  vested  rights  in  land  and 
buildings  in  the  Cameroons.  She  did  not  pay  even  for  the 
settlement  of  Ambas  Bay,  originally  purchased  from  the  natives 
by  the  Baptist  Mission  and  annexed  by  Germany  in  1887. 
Such  of  the  land  and  buildings  as  were  not  required  by  the 
German  Government  for  its  own  use  at  Victoria  were  pur- 
chased from  the  English  Baptists  by  the  Basel  Missionary 
Society  of  Switzerland  for  ^2,000.  All  these  events  occurred 
twenty  years  ago,  and  the  last  thing  the  present  writer  desires 


62     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


is  to  reawaken  old  animosities.  He  wishes,  however,  in  re- 
cording all  these  facts  to  point  out  that  at  no  time  did  the 
Baptist  Missionary  Society  embarrass  the  policy  of  the  British 
Government,  or  attempt  to  cause  bad  blood  between  England 
and  Germany  by  calling  attention  to  the  really  outrageous 
treatment  they  received,  or  by  clamouring  that  property  ac- 
quired on  their  part  by  much  expenditure  of  money  and 
improved  by  many  years  of  hard  manual  labour  had  been  taken 
from  them  for  ever  without  any  excuse  or  compensation. 

With  the  transference  to  Germany  of  Ambas  Bay  in  1887 
the  history  of  the  Baptist  Mission  in  the  Cameroons  came  to 
a  close  ;  but  the  native  church  founded  by  the  British  and  West 
Indian  missionaries  still  exists,  and  receives  a  kindly  support 
at  the  hands  of  the  German  and  Swiss  missionaries  who  have 
replaced  the  colleagues  of  Alfred  Saker. 


CHAPTER  IV 


MODERN  MISSIONARY  PIONEERS  IN  CONGOLAND 

IN  the  spring  of  1877  a  generous  supporter  of  the  Baptist 
Mission  and  of  other  philanthropic,  disinterested  work  in 
Africa — Mr.  Robert  Arthington  of  Leeds ^ — had  guessed 
prophetically  at  the  importance  of  the  Congo  River  before  the 
results  of  Stanley's  great  exploring  journey  were  known  in  the 
autumn  of  1877.  No  doubt  Mr.  Arthington,  in  announcing  in 
his  letter  to  the  Baptist  Mission  of  May  14  1877  that  the 
Congo  and  Livingstone's  Lualaba  were  one,  was  influenced 
by  the  guess  made  in  that  direction  by  the  explorer  Cameron. 
At  any  rate  he  was  certainly  in  advance  of  local  opinion  in 
Liverpool,  Manchester,  and  Glasgow  at  that  date,  which  took 
no  interest  whatever  in  the  Congo,  and  derided  any  possibili- 
ties that  might  arise  from  its  development.  As  the  result  of 
his  generous  donation  to  the  funds  of  the  Mission,  two  of  the 
more  active  missionaries  in  the  Cameroons — George  Grenfell 
and  Thomas  J.  Comber — were  despatched  to  the  Lower  Congo 
to  reconnoitre  (January-February  1878),  and  returned  for  more 
elaborate  exploration  five  months  afterwards,  resolving  to 
penetrate  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Kongo  as  far  as  its  capital 
of  San  Salvador,  and  thence  to  push  inland  towards  the  un- 
known. Their  first  flying  visit  was  scarcely  over  than  there 
arrived  the  pioneers  of  an  undenominational  mission  (Living- 
stone Inland  Mission)  started  by  Dr.  Grattan  Guinness  of 
Harley  House,  Bow.  This  institution  settled  first  at  Pala- 
bala  on  the  heights  east  of  Matadi.  Dr.  Grattan  Guinness 
in  London  and  Mr.  Henry  Craven  on  the  Congo  produced, 
after  some  three  years'  study  (assisted  by  Congo  natives  sent 
to  England),  the  first  good  grammars  and  dictionaries  of  the 
Kishi-Kongo  tongue,  linguistic  work  which  held  the  field  until 

'  Mr.  Arthington  by  his  donations  in  1880  to  the  Liberian  Republic  enabled  that 
State  to  found  the  industrial  colony  now  called  Arthington,  near  the  St.  Paul's  River, 
in  western  Liberia.  He  died  in  1894,  leaving  large  donations  in  trust  for  British 
missionary  societies. 

63 


64     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


the  masterly,  encyclopaedic  studies  of  this  important  language 
published  by  Holman  Bendey  in  1886-7.    One  of  the  earlier 


recruits 
Dr.  A. 


of  the  Harley  House 
Sims  (of  Birmingham), 


Mission  was  the  celebrated 
a  medical  missionary  who  is 
still  serving  on 
the  Congo,  who 
has  compiled 
grammars  and 
vocabularies  of 
several  Upper 
Concho  lanouacjes, 
and  has  rendered 
medical  service  of 
inestimable  value 
for  twenty-seven 
years  to  some 
thousands  of 
Europeans  and 
countless  negroes. 

o 

Grenfell  and 
Comber  reached 
the  mouth  of  the 
Conoo  for  the 
second  time  on 
June  28  1878, 
and  by  the  help 
of  the  great  Dutch 
trading  house 
with  its  stations 
at  Banana  and 
Boma,  and  a  cer- 
tain John  Scott,^ 
they  ascended  the 
river  to  a  place 
called  Musuko  or  Nsuku,  some  forty  miles  above  Boma,  in  the 
narrow  part  of  the  Congo.  On  August  8  1878  they  reached  San 
Salvador  without  any  difficulty,  and  were  very  well  received  by 
the  King,  whose  official  title  was  Ntolela,  Ntinu  a  Lukeni, 
Dom  Pedro  V.  Before  he  was  placed  on  the  throne  in  1857 
by  Portuguese  arms  he  was  Elelo,  "  Marquis  "  of  Katende. 


28.  liAOr.Ai:  TRKK  AT  A  \  -  \l,\AliiiK 
OK  LIEUT.  GRANDV,  1873,  AND 
GRENFELL  CARVED  I\   1 878 

(Photo  by  Rev.  H.  Ross  Phillips.) 


SHOWING  INITIALS 
OF    COMBER  AND 


'  This  John  Scott  is  referred  to  in  Holman  Bentley's  interesting  work,  Pioficcn'jig 
on  the  Congo.  He  was  in  reality  a  St.  Helena  half-caste  married  to  a  Spanish  wife,  a 
noted  slave-trader  even  as  late  as  the  'seventies.  Having  no  use  on  one  occasion  for 
about  forty  slaves,  he  fastened  them  all  to  a  heavy  chain  and  drowned  them  in  the 


MISSIONARY  PIONEERS  IN  CONGOLAND  65 


By  his  subjects  he  was  usually  referred  to  as  "Ntinu  n'Ekongo," 
equivalent  to  "  King  of  Congoland."' 

In  the  town  of  San  Salvador  was  noticed  a  great  baobab 
tree  on  which  Lieutenant  Grandy  of  the  1872-4  Livingstone 
Expedition  had  cut  his  initials.  Grenfell  and  Comber  added 
theirs  with  the  date  1878.  I  believe  the  tree  is  still  standing. 
From  San  Salvador  they  resolved  to  proceed  north-eastwards 
to  the  Makuta  country  on  their  overland  journey  to  Stanley 


29.  TUNGWA,  REACHED  BV  GREM'ELL  AND  COMBER  IN  1878 
(Here  Comber  was  wounded  by  a  bullet  in  1880.) 


Pool,  and  managed  to  secure  the  native  guide  who  had  accom- 
panied Grandy  in  1873.  The  two  missionaries  reached  the 
principal  Makuta  town,  Tungwa,  and,  unlike  Grandy,  were  per- 

Congo,  just  close  to  his  main  factory.  Naturally,  these  and  other  circumstances  were 
not  known  to  the  Baptist  missionaries  when  they  first  reached  the  Congo.  John 
Scott,  who  had  frequently  run  into  the  bush  to  escape  unwelcome  visits  from  British 
men-of-war,  endeavoured  to  regain  a  respectable  reputation  by  offering  cordial  assis- 
tance to  the  first  British  missionaries  in  these  regions.  After  Stanley's  return  to  the 
Congo  in  1879,  Scott  went  to  Spain,  and  eventually  died  there. 

The  Dutch  trading  house  at  the  mouth  of  the  Congo,  under  whose  auspices  the 
Baptist  Mission  long  carried  on  its  transport  on  the  Lower  Congo,  was  established  at 
Banana  Point  in  1869  on  land  bought  from  tlie  French  company,  Regis  et  Cie.  It 
was  first  known  as  the  Afrikaansche  Handels-Vereeniging,  but  in  1879  got  into 
financial  difficulties,  and  was  reconstructed  as  the  Nieuwe  Afrikaansche  Handels  Ven- 
nootschap.  Grenfell  always  refers  to  it  as  the  A.  H.  V.,  the  initials  of  the  original 
title. 

1  The  Rev.  T.  Lewis  states  that  Eldo  is  a  corruption  of  El-Rey  (the  King)  and 
means  more  than  "  marquis." 

I. — F 


66     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


mitted  to  enter  it  and  to  have  an  audience  of  the  chief  of 
Tungwa,  Sengele. 

"It  was  with  no  ordinary  feelings  of  gladness  and  thankfulness" 
(writes  Comber  in  1878)  "that  we  looked  down  into  the  largest  and 
prettiest  town  we  had  seen  in  the  district.  .  .  .  An  irregular  cluster  of 
some  200  houses,  some  of  them  but  half  revealed  amongst  the  beautiful 
foliage  of  trimly-kept  trees — planted  by  the  natives  themselves  as 
ornaments  to  their  town — lay  in  the  valley  at  our  feet.  ...  I  had 
never  before  seen  a  designedly  pretty  town  in  Africa,  and  was  scarcely 
prepared  for  so  much  taste  and  neatness.  The  streets  and  squares 
were  well  kept  and  are  probably  frequently  swept  Regular  avenues 
and  fences  of  a  tree  bearing  a  pretty  purple  and  white  flower  divided 
off  the  town.  .  .  .  The  River  Lulewa  winds  round  the  east  and  south." 

Following  their  guide  Matoko,  Comber  and  Grenfell  were 
escorted  by  about  a  hundred  townsmen  into  the  centre  of 
Tungfwa,  while  the  drums  beat  a  deafening  welcome. 

"  The  people  were  in  a  great  state  of  excited  curiosity  .  .  .  gazing 
at  us  with  that  intense  wondering  gaze  I  had  before  encountered  in 
interior  Cameroons.  One  fine  old  woman  especially  interested  me. 
She  took  her  pipe  from  her  mouth  and  looked  at  us  long  and  silently, 
with  piercing  eyes  .  .  .  this  old  woman  was  nearly  always  amongst 
the  crowd,  constantly  sitting  at  a  respectful  distance  from  our  tent.  .  .  . 
But  most  interesting  were  the  children — some  half-dozen  boys  about 
eight  to  twelve  years  old,  with  frank,  open  faces,  bright  lustrous  eyes, 
and  well-formed  heads." 

The  chiefs  compound  or  "  lumbu  "  ^  was  fenced  off  by  tall, 
straight-stemmed  trees  of  poplar- like  appearance  :  possibly 
dracaenas.  His  son  Nsusu-a-mpembe  ("  the  White  Fowl  ")  came 
to  conduct  them  courteously  to  the  presence  of  his  father 
[whom  Comber  styles  the  "  Soba,"  this  being  the  Portuguese 
designation  of  native  chiefs  in  Angola]. 

"  The  son  of  the  Soba  made  his  appearance,  dressed  in  a  red  and 
black  plaid  wound  round  his  body  and  over  his  shoulders,  a  military 
coat,  and  a  military  cocked  hat.  He  advanced  slowly  to  the  sound  of 
drums  and  bugles,  his  people  forming  an  avenue  at  his  approach. 
When  he  reached  within  a  dozen  paces,  he  stepped  briskly  forward 
from  the  umbrella  held  over  him,  and  lifting  his  hat,  and  making  a 
good  bow,  shook  hands  with  us.  He  had  come  to  conduct  us  to  the 
Soba,  his  father,  by  whom  we  were  grandly  received  ;  indeed,  in  a  more 
stately  and  striking  manner  than  by  the  King  of  Congo.    He  was 

1  This  word  Lumbu  often  recurs  in  Grenfell's  diaries  and  notes  dealing  with 
south-west  Congohind.  It  is  a  word  meaning  stockade,  fenced  enclosure,  and  may 
be  related  to  the  Eastern  Bantu  root  -umba,  a  house.  A  somewhat  similar  word  in 
the  Bangi  and  Bangala  languages  of  the  northern  Congo  is  Ngumba. 


MISSIONARY  PIONEERS  IN  CONGOLAND  67 


sitting  on  a  bamboo  native  chair,  dressed  much  in  the  same  style  as  his 
son,  and  was  surrounded  by  musicians.  He  rose  from  his  seat  on  our 
approach  and  advanced  to  meet  us,  while  his  band  made  such  a 
deafening  noise  that  our  efforts  to  speak  to  him  were  in  vain.  The 
musical  instruments  consisted  of  some  large  drums,  about  six  cornets  and 
bugles,  and  seven  ivory  trumpets  :  these  trumpets  were  each  of  a  whole 
tusk,  and  gave  forth  very  softened  sweet  sounds.  As  he  had  nothing 
but  leopard  skins  to  offer  to  us  to  sit  upon,  and  the  music  was  almost 
too  much,  we  retired,  asking  him  to  visit  us  in  our  tent.  This  he  did, 
with  his  son,  soon  after,  when  we  explained  why  we  had  come.  He 
thought  we  were  traders  and  had  come  from  Ambriz  to  buy  his  ivory. 


30.  NATIVE  MUSICIANS  AT  TUNGWA,  187S 
(Photographed  by  Grenfell.) 


and  seemed  scarcely  to  believe  us  when  we  said  we  had  never  bought  a 
single  tusk,  and  only  wanted  to  teach  black  men  what  was  good.  He 
had  had  no  experience  of  missionaries  before." 

The  question  of  their  being  allowed  to  travel  on  beyond 
Tungwa  to  the  Congo  or  anywhere  else  interiorwards  was 
referred  by  Nsusu-a-mpembe  to  the  decision  of  the  supreme 
chief  of  the  Makuta  country — Bwaka-matu,  who  lived  at 
Mbanza  Makuta,^  about  six  miles  farther  on.  Bentley 
records  with  some  humour  Bwaka-matu's  reception  of  Nsusu- 
a-mpembe's  well-meant  description  of  the  missionaries'  aims 

'  It  was  at  Mljanza  Makuta  in  1880  tliat  Comber  was  shot  in  the  back. 


68     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


and  ambitions.  "Oh,  they  dont  buy  ivory?  What  do  they 
want  then  ?  Teach  us  about  God  !  Something  about  dying, 
indeed !  There  is  far  too  much  of  that  now  :  people  are  always 
dying  in  my  town.  They  are  not  coming  here  ...  to  bewitch 
me.  Why  do  not  the  Tungwa  people  send  them  away?"  So 
they  were  turned  back  from  Tungwa  and  forced  to  retrace  their 
steps  to  San  Salvador,  Comber  proceeded  to  England  to  lay 
the  joint  report  before  his  Mission  Council.^ 

Grenfell,  however,  made  his  way  to  the  Canieroons,  where 
his  second  marriage  took  place  (at  Victoria).  For  a  short  time 
(1879)  he  left  the  service  of  the  Baptist  Mission  to  explore  and 
to  study  African  trade  questions,  and  returned  as  a  missionary 
to  the  Congo  in  1 880. 

'  Early  in  1879  Comber  read  a  paper  at  the  Ro)  al  Geographical  Society  on  his 
Cameroons  and  Congo  journeys  (Richard  Burton  being  present). 


CHAPTER  V 


THE  MODERN  HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO 

BEFORE  resuming"  the  story  of  missionary  adventure 
and  discovery  it  might  be  as  well  to  sketch  as  briefly 
as  possible  the  history  of  the  white  man's  dealings  with 
Conooland. 

The  native  kingdom  of  the  Lower  Cono-o  stands  first  in 
importance  as  the  region  with  the  longest  recorded  history. 
It  seems  to  have  been  founded  early  in  the  fourteenth  century 
by  a  chief  named  Emini-a-nzima,  who  dwelt  somewhere  near 
Musuko  (Nsuku),  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Lower  Congo.  He 
was  succeeded  by  a  son,  Lukeni,  who  began  life  as  a  lawless 
"Prince  Hal"  and  ended  as  a  wise  conqueror  and  administrator, 
with  his  capital  at  the  present  town  of  San  Salvador.  The 
hilly  or  tableland  region  of  Zombo  and  Mpemba  was  then 
named  "  Ekongo,"  apparently  from  the  dominant  Kongo  tribe. 
The  Ba-kongo  or  Eshi-kongo^  (as  they  are  self-styled — the 
best  etymology  of  the  name  seems  to  be  "hunters")  appar- 
ently reached  their  modern  home  by  journeying  up  from  the 
south-east,  from  the  region  bounded  on  the  east  by  the  River 
Kwan^o.  There  are  other  "  Ba-kong-o  "  or  "  Tu-kongo  "  tribes 
of  south-central  Congoland  which  may  have  been  originally 
related  to  the  western  Kongo  people.  The  Kongo  language  is 
intimately  allied  to  that  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  northern  half 
of  Angola,  and  less  closely  to  the  group  of  Bantu  languages 
which  in  the  south-east  branches  into  Herero,  and  also  more 
faintly  to  the  tongues  of  south-central  Congoland  between  the 
middle  Kasai,  Kwango  and  the  territories  of  the  Mwata  Yanvo. 
The  Kongo  people  are  evidently  one  of  the  main  offshoots  of 
the  early  Bantu  (Luba,  Kuba)  invasion  of  the  southern  half 

'  The  etymology  Eshi-  is  apparently  A-ishi  from  the  plural  prefix  A-  which  is  a 
weakening  of  Ba-  and  refers  to  "people":  coupled  with  the  root ,?//?,  nshi,  meaning 
"country."  But  there  is  a  great  deal  of  uncertainty  still  as  to  the  derivation  and 
meaning  of  the  particle  shi,  as  associated  with  Kongo  speech,  and  with  many  other 
racial  names  in  W.  Central  Africa  (Bashilange,  Bashilele,  etc.). 

69 


70     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


of  Africa,  an  immiorati<>n  which  at  first  made  a  wide  detour  to 
the  south  and  west  to  avoid  the  dense  forests  of  the  central 
Cono-Q  basin.    The  orioinal  Bantu  vi^jour  which  created  semi- 

....  ^  ^ 

civilization  and  powerful  monarchies  in  Uganda,  Ankole, 
south-west  Nyasaland,  and  northern  Zambezia  (Mwene 
Mutapa),  in  Bakubaland,  Burua,  Lunda,  and  the  regions  of 
the  upper  Kwilu,  penetrated  as  far  to  the  north-west  as  the 
Lower  Congo  in  its  cataract  region  and  its  embouchure,  the 
influence  even  stretchinor  north  of  the  Con^jo  mouth  to  the 
coast-lands  of  Kabinda  and  Luansfo. 

  o 

There  is  a  sharp  division  between  the  Kongo  language  of 
the  Congo,  from  near  Stanley  Pool  to  Kabinda,  and  the  other 
Bantu  dialects  to  the  north,  north-east,  and  east,  which  have 
reached  their  present  localities  by  a  different  line  of  migration 
to  that  which  has  brouQ-ht  the  Ba-konQfo  from  South-Central 
Africa  throuo-h  the  southern  and  western  limits  of  the  Conoco 
basin. 

When  the  Portuguese  explorer  Dom  Diogo  Cam  (still 
remembered  by  name  in  Congoland)  discovered  the  mouth  of 
the  Congo  in  1482  he  at  once  heard  from  the  natives  of  the 
existence  in  the  interior  of  a  great  "monarch,"  the  Mani, 
Mwani,  or  Mwene  'Kongo  (Lord  of  the  Congo  people),^  resident 
at  Mbanza  'Kongo.  The  Portuguese  exaggerated  even  the 
local  importance  and  power  of  this  Congo  chieftain,  and  des- 
patched to  him  a  formal  embassy  in  1490  under  Roderigo  de 
Souza,  who  was  accompanied  by  Catholic  missionaries.  The 
King  of  Kongo  was  baptized  about  1492,  and  Christianity 
nominally  established  as  the  religion  of  his  country.  In  1534 
a  cathedral  was  built  under  the  influence  of  the  Portuguese  at 
the  capital  town  (Mbanza  'Kongo),  which  was  rechristened  San 
Salvador;  and  in  1549  a  Jesuit  mission  was  established  at  this 
place. 

In  1570  the  kingdom  was  overrun  by  a  savage  cannibal 
horde  called  by  the  Portuguese  "Jagga"  and  by  the  Italian 
chroniclers  "Giaga,"  who  are  probably  not  the  modern  Ba-yaka 
of  the   lower  Kwansfo,  but  the    Imbang-ala  of  the  middle 

'  This  term  Mani,  Miuani,  or  Mwene,  meaning  Lord,  Overseer,  Owner,  Great 
Chief,  is  absent  from  Bentley's  comprehensive  dictionary,  but  certainly  was  in  use  at 
one  time  on  the  Lower  Congo  near  the  sea.  It  is  a  widespread  Bantu  word,  and  ac- 
cording to  Bentley  it  is  now  reduced  in  Kongo  to  the  particle  7ie.  Kongo  or  Ekongo 
was  never  the  name  of  the  great  river,  in  spite  of  its  similarity  to  Kicango,  the  Bantu 
name  of  the  Congo  and  of  so  many  African  rivers.  Kwango  is  really  Ku-angu,  an 
infinitive,  and  is  the  name  often  given  to  the  Congo  itself  in  the  cataract  region, 
besides  the  great  south-western  affluent  which  drains  eastern  Angola.  Kottgo  on  the 
other  hand  is  a  root  widespread  in  western  Bantu  languages  meaning  "  spear"  and 
"  hunter." 


THE  MODERN  HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  71 


Kwango  (Kasanje).^  An  appeal  was  made  to  the  King  of 
Portugal  (Dom  Sebastiao),  and  six  hundred  soldiers  were  sent 
out  armed  with  firearms.  This  force  drove  out  the  "  Jaggas  " 
and  restored  the  Portuguese  civilization  and  Christianity  of  the 
ConcTO  kino'dom. 

Some  kind  of  Portuguese  suzerainty  was  then  accepted  by 
the  kingdom  of  Kongo,  but  this  vassalage  was  gradually  weak- 
ened as  Portugal  itself  was  numbed  in  its  power  by  the  Spanish 
usurpation  of  the  Portuguese  throne  ;  for  amongst  other  dis- 
advantages this  seventy  years'  "captivity"  entailed  on  Portugal 


31.  ANCIKM   rORTUGUESE  INSCRIPTION  ON  ROCKS  ABOVE  MATADI 


was  the  transference  of  Dutch  hostility  and  rapacity  to  unfor- 
tunate Lusitania.  The  Dutch  attempted  to  oust  the  Portuguese 
not  only  from  the  East  Indies  and  Brazil,  but  also  from 
Angola  and  other  parts  of  West  Africa.  In  various  ways  the 
Portuguese  had  become  unpopular  in  San  Salvador.     In  order 

'  The  tribal  name  Yaka  or  Yaga  crops  up  elsewhere  in  equatorial  West  Africa. 
Nevertheless  it  is  clear  from  Battell's  adventures  some  forty  years  earlier  that  the 
"  J^bgas  "  came  from  the  direction  of  the  middle  Kwango.  Andrew  Battell's  "  Mani 
Kesock"  to  whom  the  (Batwa)  pygmies  paid  tribute  is  evidently  Mwene  Kasongo  of 
Lunda.  The  "  Jagga"  raiders  may  have  been  the  marauding  people  now  known  as 
Ba-jok,  Ba-kioko,  etc.,  still  inhabiting  the  south-west  parts  of  Congoland,  but  Purchas 
(AB.,  84)  distinctly  states  that  their  own  name  for  themseh  es  was  "  Imbangola." 
Jaga  was  the  title  of  a  chief  or  leader  or  ruling  clan,  like  the  Jittga  of  old  Angola. 


72     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


to  cope  with  the  Dutch  on  the  River  Kwanza  they  transferred 
their  forces  to  the  coast  regions  of  Angola,  and  abandoned  the 
cathedral  of  San  Salvador  (1608)  in  favour  of  the  see  of  Sao 
Paulo  de  Loanda,  the  cathedral  of  which  important  coast  town 
had  been  commenced  in  1575  by  Dom  Paulo  Diaz  de  Novaes. 
The  bold  Dutchmen  sent  an  embassy  to  the  King  of  Kongo  in 
1642,  during  the  brief  time  they  had  captured  and  held  Sao 
Paulo  de  Loanda  (1640-8). 

In  162 1  a  mission  was  sent  by  Paul  V  (Bull  of  21st  of 
August  1620)  to  the  King  of  Kongo  at  San  Salvador.  Pope 


32.  OLD  PORTUGl  K.-l.  INm  Kil  l  1. 'N   i 'N   KmlR^  ABOVE  MATADI 


Urban  VIII  in  1640  erected  the  Congo  kingdom  into  an 
Apostolic  prefecture  depending  on  Rome  directly,  and  des- 
patched in  1644  ten  Italian  Capuchins  under  Father  Bonaven- 
tura  of  Alessano,  who  settled  at  "  Sonho  "  (Sant  Antonio)  on 
the  south  shore  of  the  Congo  estuary,  in  Kakongo,  San  Salva- 
dor, and  along  the  cataract  region,  perhaps  as  far  inland  as 
Manyanga.  In  1646  a  second  mission  started  for  the  Congo 
under  Father  Bonaventura  of  Taggia  ;  in  1650  a  third  under 
Bonaventura  of  Sorrento  and  Geronimo  of  Montesarchio ;  in 
1 65 1  a  fourth  mission  under  Father  Francois  of  Valence,  ap- 
pointed Apostolical  prefect  of  the  Congo.  With  these  Capu- 
chins began  the  second  period  of  Congo  evangelization,  which 


THE  MODERN  HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  73 


continued  with  much  energy  and  some  success  till  1717,  when 
the  Capuchins  were  driven  away  by  the  natives. 

In  1 65 1,  Father  Erasmus  of  Furnes,  a  Belgian,  accom- 
panied forty-five  Capuchins  to  the  Congo;  in  (about)  1653  two 
more  Belgian  fathers — Siller  of  Antwerp  and  Georges  of 
Gheel — took  part  in  the  fifth  Capuchin  mission.  Father 
Georges  was  killed  by  the  natives. 

Between  1673  '^^^^  1675  an  independent  Flemish  mis- 
sion of    Franciscan   Recollets   arrived   from    Antwerp  and 


33.  THE  RUINS  OF  THE  WALL  OF  CONVENT,  SAN  SALVADOR,  BUILT  I'.V  THE 
PORTUGUESE  IN  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY 


Brussels,  but  returned  in  two  years.  This  Belgian  mission  was 
commanded  by  Father  Wauters  of  Antwerp,  assisted  by 
Fathers  Corluy  of  Brussels  and  Cacherat  (a  Frenchman).  In 
view  of  the  recent  political  development  of  Congo  history  it  is 
interesting  to  note  these  first  appearances  of  Belgians  in  the 
Congo  drama,  especially  as  one  of  them — Georges — became  a 
martyr  to  his  propagandist  zeal. 

Pope  Innocent  X  sent  a  special  embassy  to  the  Kongo 
kingdom  in  1652  ;  and  his  successors  on  the  papal  throne 
occupied  themselves  assiduously  with  Congo  affairs  until  they 
became  disheartened  by  the  expulsion  of  the  Capuchins  in  1717. 


74     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Among  the  notable  Italians  who  carried  on  a  Christian  propa- 
ganda in  western  Congoland,  the  following  names  deserve  to  be 
again  recorded,  from  the  special  point  of  view  of  this  book 
(contributions  to  human  knowledge)  :  Father  Giacinto  Brus- 
ciotto  of  Vetralla  (one  time  Prefect  of  the  Apostolic  Mission), 
who  in  [650  and  1659  published  at  Rome  works  on  the 
Kongo  language — a  vocabulary  of  Kongo  with  parallel  columns 
of  Latin,  Portuguese,  and  Italian,  and  later,  a  Latin  grammar 
of  Kongo^  [the  earliest  record  of  the  Kongo  language  was  the 
translation  of  a  Portuguese  religious  treatise  printed  at  Lisbon 
in  1624];  and  Fathers  Cavazzi  of  Montecucollo  (1687).  Merolla 
of  Sorrento  (1692),  and  Zucchelli  (17 12),  wlio  all  wrote 
treatises  on  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  Lower  Congro  and 
Angola  peoples. 

In  the  early  eighteenth  century,  at  the  close  of  the  reign  of 
Louis  XIV,  the  French  Government  had  not  only  attempted  to 
create  political  interests  in  the  Far  East  through  religious 
missions,  but  aspired  to  replace  the  Portuguese  missionaries  in 
Abyssinia  (for  the  same  political  purpose),  and  even  on  the 
Lower  Congo.  In  fact,  a  direct  French  influence  in  Congo- 
land  certainly  began  in  the  eighteenth  century.  The  Pope  was 
induced  to  sanction  a  French  Roman  Catholic  mission  in  1760. 
The  Abbe  Belgarde  was  appointed  by  the  propaganda  "prefect 
of  the  mission  of  Loango,  Cacongo,  and  other  kingdoms  on  this 
side  of  the  Zaire,"  and  arrived  on  the  Luango  coast  in  1766. 
He  was  accompanied  amongst  others  by  the  Abbe  Proyart, 
who  in  1776  wrote  a  History  of  Loango,  with  a  vocabulary  of 
the  Kakongo  dialect. 

There  is  no  clear  record  as  to  what  caused  the  fading  away 
of  this  French  missionary  effort,  but  it  does  not  seem  to  have 
lasted  more  than  eight  years.  In  1772  a  French-Kongo 
dictionary  of  about  one  thousand  words,  apparently  of  the 
Kakongo  dialect,  was  compiled  at  Paris,  and  found  its  way  in 
MS.  to  the  British  Museum  Library,  where  it  still  is. 

The  last  expedition  of  Italian  missionaries  (Barbadini) 
reached  San  Salvador  in  1778,  but  did  not  settle  there.  In  1781 
final  attempt  was  made  by  the  Franciscans  to  establish  a  mis- 
sion at  Sonyo  (Lower  Congo)  under  the  protection  of  Portugal. 
Father  Raffaelle  di  Castello  led  this  forlorn  hope,  which 
attempted  to  reopen  relations  with  the  King  of  San  Salvador. 
But  native  hostility  had  been  increasing,  and  the  missionaries 
— Italian,  French,  and  Portuguese — withdrew  completely  from 

'  Of  which  a  translation  was  made  and  pubhshed  by  Dr.  H.  Grattan  Guinness 
in  1880. 


THE  MODERN  HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  75 


this  region  in  1782,  though  some  vestiges  of  the  mission 
remained  on  the  Luango  coast  till  1800.  Father  B.  M.  de 
Cannecattim,  a  Portuguese  Capuchin,  possibly  had  something 
to  do  with  the  remains  of  the  Luango  mission.  He  published 
in  Loanda  (?)  in  1804  a  Portuguese- Latin- Kongo- Bunda 
vocabulary.  The  Kongo  kingdom  of  San  Salvador  was  not 
revisited  by  Europeans  until  1857,  when  the  German  explorer, 
Dr.  Bastian,  made  his  way  to  the  capital.  In  1859  (to  1866)  a 
Portuguese  military  force  occupied  San  Salvador  to  put  down 
civil  war  and  establish  on  the  throne  Dom  Pedro  V,  whom  the 
Baptist  missionaries  found  still  reigning  in  1878.    [He  died  in 

^^91-]  ... 

Christianity  in  a  rather  gross  form  certainly  obtained  a  very 

strong  hold  over  the  Kongo  people  in  the  district  round  San 
Salvador.  A  King  of  Kongo — Don  Garcia — became,  accord- 
ing to  the  accounts  of  the  Capuchins — extremely  devout  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century.  He  had,  as  he  believed, 
owed  to  the  intercession  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  not  only  the 
birth  of  a  son  when  he  was  despairing  of  an  heir,  but  the 
restoration  of  that  son  to  his  arms  after  he  had  been  captured 
as  a  hostage  by  the  "Count"  of  Sonyo.  The  "Count"  of 
Sonyo  was  the  chieftain  over  a  small  district  (probably  still 
known  to  the  natives  as  Sonyo,  a  corruption  of  San  Antonio) 
on  the  south  bank  of  the  Congo  estuary  near  the  sea.  The 
priests  of  the  seventeenth  century  carried  to  Congoland  the 
political  ideas  of  that  Italy  which  had  fallen  from  the  grand 
political  freedom  and  culture  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth 
centuries  to  the  base  condition  in  which  it  lay  during  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth — Duchies  and  Grand  Duchies  in  place 
of  Free  Cities  and  Republics.  So  the  kingdom  of  Kongo, 
which  was  probably  at  its  most  powerful  a  confederation  of 
native  chieftainships  north  and  south  of  the  Lower  Congo, 
owning  a  vague  reverence  or  allegiance  to  the  oldest-estab- 
lished of  the  chieftainships  at  Mbanza  (San  Salvador),  was 
divided  up  by  Italian  and  Portuguese  geographers  (whom  the 
French  and  Flemish  copied)  into  Countships,  Grand  Duchies, 
Dukedoms,  and  Principalities.  Some  virago  who  had  got 
herself  recognized  as  the  chieftainess  over  a  dozen  villages  of 
reed  huts  was  styled  the  Duchess  of  Bata.  The  headman  of  a 
market  town  became  the  Marquis  of  Pemba,  and  so  on. 

When  the  Portuguese  had  somewhat  recovered  their  posi- 
tion in  Angola,  and  the  Dutch  had  abandoned  that  part  of 
Africa,  they  attempted  to  reassert  their  suzerainty  over  the 
Kongo  kingdom,  as  their  suspicions  of  French  intentions  were 


76     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


somewhat  aroused.  They  succeeded  in  conquering  the  regions 
near  the  coast.  By  1784  they  had  attempted  to  assert  their 
domination  north  of  the  Congo  mouth  by  building  a  small  fort 
at  Kabinda  ;  but  France,  who  had  already  no  doubt  formulated 
plans  of  African  conquest  (pushed  aside  by  the  French  Revolu- 
tion), sternly  forbade  these  pretensions,  and  the  French  naval 
commander,  the  Marquis  de  Marigny,  drove  away  the  Portu- 
guese from  Kabinda  in  1 786.  Portugal  was  too  much  involved  in 
the  Napoleonic  wars  to  make  any  further  move  in  this  direction.' 

After  Waterloo  and  St.  Helena,  British  ambitions  as  re- 
gards West  African  discovery  and  political  occupation  were 
aroused,  and  Great  Britain  joined  with  France  in  forbidding  an 
extension  of  Portuguese  rule  north  of  the  Ambriz  (Mbirizi 
River)  at  Kinsembo.  Kinsembo,  in  fact,  remained  the  ne  phis 
ultra  of  the  Portuguese  down  to  1884. 

As  to  the  supposed  knowledge  on  the  part  of  Portuguese 
explorers  and  merchants,  or  of  Jesuit  or  Capuchin  missionaries, 
concerning  the  far  interior  of  Congoland  prior  to  1877,  it  was 
certainly  limited.  They  had  some  acquaintance  with  the 
general  character  of  the  Congo  stream  as  far  inland  as  Man- 
yanga,  or  the  limits  of  the  Basundi  country.  They  knew  the 
plateau  region  east  of  San  Salvador,  and  had  penetrated  south- 
eastwards  to  the  Kw^anofo  River.  The  Portuguese  in  fact 
reached  the  Kwango  direct  from  Angola  early  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  and  effected  something  like  a  revolution  in  the  tastes, 
civilization,  and  wars  of  southern  Congoland.  This  wmU  be 
referred  to  later  in  describino-  the  reg^ions  of  the  Kasai  basin. 
But  from  some  cause  not  clearly  explained,  Portuguese  civiliza- 
tion did  not  "catch  on"  with  the  more  savage  people  of  Stanley 
Pool  or  of  the  Central  Congo  basin.  Their  progress  north- 
wards down  the  Kasai  and  Kwango  was  stopped  by  rapids. 
-  One  or  two  of  their  traders,  and  possibly  a  missionary,  may 
have  reached  the  shores  of  Stanley  Pool,'  but  no  hint  of  this 

'  As  a  matter  of  fact  she  was  still  full  of  energ)'  and  ambition  regarding  Africa, 
and  though  the  ally  of  England  in  Europe,  she  was  much  disturbed  by  new  British 
ambitions  in  Africa.  The  seizing  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  by  a  British  force  in 
1796  at  once  caused  Portugal  to  attempt  on  a  very  bold  scale  the  annexation  of  all  the 
regions  between  Angola  and  Mozambique,  and  the  exploration  of  the  interior  in  search 
of  the  rumoured  Great  Lakes.  It  was  announced  at  the  time,  that  this  was  done 
deliberately  with  a  view  to  cutting  off  the  British  from  the  formation  of  an  empire 
which  would  extend  from  Cape  Town  to  the  Mediterranean.  Dr.  Lacerda,  the  great 
Portuguese  explorer  who  conducted  this  expedition  (and  died  before  it  was  fully 
accomplished),  actually  predicted  that  the  eventual  result  of  the  British  establishment 
at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  would  be  a  Cape-to-Cairo  dominion  I 

-  In  about  1622  five  Portuguese  slave  traders  started  for  the  kingdom  of  Makoko 
(Stanley  Pool).  They  were  attacked  and  plundered  by  the  wild  natives,  but  after 
fortuitous  plagues  of  famine  and  disease  the  natives  \oluntarily  set  them  free  and 
restored  their  goods. 


THE  MODERN  HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  77 


lake-like  resei"voir  of  the  Lower  Congo  beyond  the  terraced 
moitntains  of  the  coast  was  ever  recorded  by  Portuguese 
geographers.  They  apparently  only  travelled  as  far  as  the 
influence  of  the  King  of  Kongo  extended,  to  the  vicinity 
perhaps,  but  not  to  the  actual  waters,  of  Stanley  Pool  (which 
they  called  the  country  of  the  Makoko).  The  native  middle- 
men or  the  more  adventurous  amongst  the  European  traders 
brought  back  news  of  an  important  people  called  the  Anzico, 
or  in  the  Italian  rendering,  the  "  Anzichi "  (pronounced 
Antsiki).  These  Anzico,  Anzicanas,  or  Anzeques,  were  gov- 
erned by  a  chief  called  the  Great  Makoko.  This  title  is 
obviously  the  same  as  the  Makoko  of  Mbe,  the  great  chief  of 
the  "  Bateke,"  who,  more  than  two  hundred  years  later,  gave 
such  a  cordial  reception  to  De  Brazza  and  the  Trench  flag. 
Moreover,  the  name  Anzico,  etc.,  is  probably  a  corruption  of 
"  Banseke,"  a  term  used  by  the  Basundi  and  other  Kongo 
people  near  Stanley  Pool  to  describe  the  "  Bushmen,"  the 
people  of  the  interior.  Possibly  this,  or  a  similar  term,  was 
akin  to  the  tribal  name  "  Bateke,"  which  was  given  by  Stanley 
in  1877  to  the  confederation  of  tribes  that  occupy  the  north  and 
south  coasts  of  Stanley  Pool.  The  "  Bateke  "  do  not  apply  this 
name  to  themselves  ;  apparently  their  own  designation  is  At  10 
or  Bateo.    The  root  -tcke  sometimes  means  "  Pygmy." 

Portuguese  travellers  discovered  the  upper  Kasai  River  at 
the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  this  together  with  the 
Kwango  and  of  course  the  delineation  of  Angola  were  the  only 
contributions  made  by  them  to  Congo  geography  before  the 
days  of  Livingstone;  though  their  civilizing  influence  and  even 
words  of  their  language  were  carried  right  across  the  southern 
basin  of  the  Congo  and  north  -  eastwards  along  its  main 
stream.  In  1877  Stanley  discovered  four  old  Portuguese 
muskets  in  a  village  on  the  Congo  (Rubunga)  just  at  its  north- 
ernmost bend.  It  was  here  that  the  word  "  Kongo"  first  came 
to  his  ears. 

The  vaunted  Portuguese  maps  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
with  their  Flemish  and  French  repetitions  of  the  eighteenth, 
combined  with  the  more  or  less  correct  geography  of  Angola 
a  ridiculous  and  impossible  mixture  of  the  river  systems  of 
Abyssinia  and  the  Lower  Zambezi,  joined  to  the  Ptolemaic 
traditions  of  Central  African  lakes.  In  fact,  in  these  maps  the 
waters  of  the  Nile,  the  Congo,  and  the  Zambezi  were  united  by 
natural  canals  in  defiance  of  the  laws  of  hydrostatics. 

Nevertheless  the  Portuguese  intervention  in  western  and 
southern  Congo  history  endowed  tiie  whole   basin  of  that 


78     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


mighty  river  with  food  products  and  weapons  which  profoundly 
affected  its  human  development.  To  a  region,  hitherto  only 
knowing"  as  sustenance  plantains,  leaves,  fungi,  palm-shoots, 
beans,  palm-nuts,  and  fish  ;  human  flesh,  the  flesh  of  rare 
domestic  goats,  sheep,  fowls,  and  dogs,  or  of  a  few  big  wild 
beasts  occasionally  and  with  difficulty  killed,  or  of  small  beasts  or 
birds  cauoht  in  snares:  the  Portuouese  introduced  the  domestic 
pig  and  the  European  ox,  and  that  succulent  "  Muscovy  "  duck, 
a  Brazilian  bird  which  has  travelled  rioht  across  Africa  from 
the  Congo  to  Mocambique  ;  they  brought  (to  a  part  of  Africa 
poorly  supplied  with  cultivated  plants)  such  a  variety  of  vege- 
table food -stuffs  as  the  manioc,  ground-nut,  maize,  capsi- 
cum, sweet  potato,  pineapple,  guava,  orange,  lime,  sugar-cane, 
tomato,  and  papaw.  The  tobacco  introduced  by  the  Portuguese 
has  contended  successfully  against  the  stupefying"  or  maddening 
hemp  which  has  entered  Congoland  from  the  far  Muhammadan 
north-east. 

Though  unsuccessful  in  civilizing"  the  Lower  Congo  they 
have  built  up  free,  intelligent,  educated  native  communities  in 
northern  Angola  and  on  the  central  Kwango  (like  the 
Ambaquistas),  whose  enterprising  trade  journeys  led  to  the  first 
intelliorent  crossinos  of  Africa  from  west  to  east.  Portuoal  has 
played  a  great  part  for  good  and  ill  in  Congo  history. 

The  first  Britisher  to  visit  these  reoions  was  an  Essex  sailor 

o 

of  Leigh,  near  Southend,  Andrew  Battel!,  who  somewhere  about 
1 5 1 5  shipped  on  a  voyage  of  discovery  towards  America,  got 
shipwrecked  on  the  coast  of  Brazil,  was  eventually  rescued  by  a 
Portuguese  ship  and  retained  for  years  on  board  as  a  kind  of 
prisoner  at  large,  lest  he  should  communicate  geographical 
knowledge  to  his  fellow-countrymen.  Battell  accompanied  this 
ship  therefore  in  her  voyages  backwards  and  forwards  to  the 
Angola  coast  about  Benguela.  Here  the  country  was  being 
ravaged  by  the  mysterious  cannibal  horde  of  the  Jaggas  [Giagas], 
already  referred  to  in  the  history  of  the  Kongo  kingdom.  Battell 
was  eventual! V  left  with  the  "Giao-as"  as  a  hostage,  and  in  their 
company  saw  much  of  southern  Angola.  In  all  he  seems  to  have 
spent  nearly  eighteen  years  south  of  the  Kwanza  River  or  off  the 
coast  of  Congo  and  Luanoo:  though  his  narrative  is  rather  con- 
fusing"  and  does  not  always  distinguish  between  hearsay  and 
personal  experience.  But  he  brought  back  definite  accounts  of 
the  pygmies  of  Congoland  and  the  great  apes  of  the  Luango 
coast,  whom  he  calls  "  Pongoes,"  a  name  still  applied  in  that 
region  to  the  chimpanzee. 

The  British,  however,  gave  no  great  heed  to  the  Congo  until 


CapLopo 


'  Ude  Gabok  ou  Po:nco 


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ROYAUME  DU  MaCOCO 


^J^^VS  DKS  AmBOKS 
I          I  I 


A  u        E       xL  O  ANA>  o 


OUV_^  ATST  21  c  o 

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,  ''Soua  lii' 

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M  la^parclc       ^  I  Souche  <le  la  M< 


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I 


34.  A  MAP  OF  THE  CONGO  REGIONS  PUBLISHED  AT  AMSTERDAM  IN  1733  IN  THE  ATLAS 

OF  GUILLAUME  DE  L'iSLE  (PUBLISHERS,  JAN  COVENS  AND  CORNEILLE  MORTIER) 

This  map  represents  the  utmost  information  ever  given  to  the  world  by  the  Portuguese,  Italian,  French,  and  Flemish 
explorers  (mainly  missionaries)  down  to  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century. 


8o     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century.  About  this  time  they  were 
beginning  to  search  for  the  sea  outlet  of  the  mysterious  Niger, 
which  rose  behind  Senegambia  and  flowed  eastward.  Some 
thought  it  might  describe  an  enormous  curve  and  reach  the  sea 
through  the  Lower  Congo.  A  Captain  Maxwell  of  the  British 
Navy  (which  had  begun  to  cruise  along  the  coast  of  Lower 
Guinea  from  1783)  surveyed  the  Lower  Congo  with  consider- 
able care  and  accuracy  from  its  mouth  to  Boma  and  Noki  in 
1793-  When  the  Napoleonic  wars  were  over,  in  18 16,  the 
British  Government  despatched  Captain  J.  K.  Tuckey,  r.n., 
with  a  well-staffed  expedition  to  explore  the  Congo  from  its 
mouth  upwards,  there  being  a  strong  belief  at  that  period  that 
the  Congo  was  the  real  outlet  of  the  Niger.  The  expedition 
only  got  as  far  as  Isangila.  Tuckey  and  seventeen  of  the 
officers  and  men  died  of  fever,  and  the  only  effective  results 
were  the  biological  (chiefly  botanic)  collections  of  the  botanist 
Christian  Smith  (who  also  contributed  a  short  study  of  the 
Congo  language  and  ethnography).^ 

In  1827-9  H.M.SS.  Levin  and  BarracoiUa  of  Captain 
Owen's  great  African  coast-exploring  expedition  surveyed  the 
estuarine  Congo.  Captain  Hunt  in  1857  carried  on  the  survey 
to  IVIatadi,  and  the  great  explorer  Richard  Burton  penetrated  a 
few  miles  farther  (describing  Yalala  Falls)  in  1863.- 

During  the  'thirties  and  'forties  of  the  last  century  British 
energies  in  West  Africa  were  mainly  occupied  with  projects 
both  benevolent  and  practical  in  connection  with  the  Niger  and 
the  Niger  coast.  At  the  end  of  the  forties,  however,  a  strong 
impulsion  of  missionary  energy  took  place  in  South  Africa, 
chiefly  in  connection  with  the  London  Missionary  Society, 
which  has  played  such  a  very  large  part — I  think  I  might  say 
without  exaggeration  a  magnificent  part — in  the  opening  up 
of  all  South-Central  Africa  from  Cape  Town  to  Tanganyika 
and  the  southern  limits  of  the  Congo  basin.  Foremost  amongst 
the  agents  of  this  society  was  David  Livingstone,  who,  assisted 
a  good  deal  by  the  generosity  and  companionship  of  W.  Cotton 
Oswell  (the  Selous  of  his  day),  not  only  discovered  Lake 
Ngami,  the  Victoria  Falls,  and  the  Upper  Zambezi,  but,  with 
the  doubtful  exception  of  earlier  Portuguese  travellers,  was  the 
first  to  reveal  to  us  the  upper  Kasai  River  under  that  name  or 
Kasabi.    Livingstone   explored  part   of  the    Kwango,  and 

'  One  of  the  skulls  of  Congo  natives  illustrated  in  this  book  was  collected  by  the 
Tuckey  Expedition. 

-  About  the  time  Owen's  expedition  was  off  the  Congo  coast  a  Frenchman,  Dou- 
ville,  is  supposed  to  have  been  exploring  the  interior,  but  Douville's  book  published  in 
1832  is  full  of  fictitious  episodes. 


THE  MODERN  HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  8i 


reached  the  Atlantic  at  St.  Paul  de  Loanda,  thence  travelHng 
back  through  the  south-western  Hmits  of  the  ConQO  basin  to 
the  Upper  Zambezi,  and  tracin:^-  that  river  in  its  essential 
features  down  to  the  Indian  Ocean. 

This  wonderful  journey  on  his  part  had  a  direct  effect  on 
Congo  history.  It  led  Livingstone  back  as  an  explorer  and 
a  Consul  to  the 
Zambezi  basin  and 
Lake  Nyasa,  but 
he  never  rested 
until  he  passed 
beyond  the  basin 
of  the  Zambezi  to 
explore  the  mys- 
teries of  what  he 
considered  were 
the  upper  waters 
of  the  Nile.  All 
those  stories  of 
great  lakes  lying 
to  the  west  and 
north-west  of  Lake 
Nyasa  beyond 
ranges  of  plateau- 
mountains  coin- 
cided, in  his  opin- 
ion, with  the  ex- 
travagant ideas  of 
seventeenth  -  cen- 
tury Portuguese 
geography,  ideas 
which  had  dragged 
the  mountains, 

lakes,  and  kingdoms  of  Abyssinia  twenty  degrees  too  far  south, 
Livingstone  discovered  the  Chambezi,  Bangweulu,  the  south 
end  of  Tanganyika  (already  the  north  end  had  been  discovered 
by  Burton  and  Speke  in  1857),  Lake  Mweru  and  the  Luapula 
in  1867,  Lake  Bangweulu  in  1868,  and  after  crossing  and 
recrossing  Tanganyika  had  reached  Nyangwe,  on  the  Lualaba- 
187 1  ;  this  river  he  believed  to  be  the  Albertine 
Livingstone  died  at  Chitambo's  to  the  south  of  Lake 
Bangweulu,  just  within  the  basin  of  the  Congo. 

Before  he  was  known  to  have  been  relieved  by  Stanley  the 
Royal  Geographical  Society  of  London  had  despatched  two 

I. — G 


35.  TREE  UNDER  WHICH  LIVINGSTONE'S  HEART  WAS 
BURIED  AT  THE  VILLAGE  OF  CHITAMBO 


Congo,  m 
Nile. 


82     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


expeditions  to  his  assistance.  One  under  Cameron  departed 
from  Zanzibar  and  the  East  Coast ;  the  other  under  Lieutenant 
Grandy,  r.n.,  was  sent  out  to  the  mouth  of  the  Congo.  For, 
although  Livingstone  still  clung  to  his  Nile  theory,  the  geo- 
graphical world  was  more  and  more  inclined  to  link  the  mighty 
Lualaba  with  the  unknown  course  of  the  Congro. 

Grandy  reached  San  Salvador  in  1873,  and  made  a  futile 
attempt  to  push  his  way  north-eastwards  past  the  cataracts  of 
the  Congo.  His  journey  was  arrested,  however,  at  the  same 
place,  Tungwa,  as  that  where  Grenfell  and  Comber's  pioneer- 
ing expedition  was  stopped  in  1878,  and  near  where  Comber 
was  shot  and  obliged  to  turn  back  in  1880. 

Cameron's  journey  had  infinitely  greater  results,  was,  in  fact, 
one  of  the  turning-points  in  recent  African  history.  Cameron 
reached  Nyangwe,  but,  guided  by  the  advice  of  the  Arabs, 
deemed  it  impossible  with  his  attenuated  expedition  to  force  his 
way  past  the  cataracts  of  the  Lualaba  northwards.  He  left 
Nyangwe  to  journey  by  the  line  of  least  resistance  to  the  Atlantic 
coast,  but  quitted  the  Lualaba  with  the  emphatic  conviction  that 
it  was  none  other  than  the  main  Congo.  Consequently,  the  map 
he  published  in  1875  on  his  return,  though  it  omitted  the  great 
northerly  bend  of  the  river,  was  the  first  indication  coming 
anywhere  near  reality  of  the  approximate  course  of  this  mighty 
river.  Hitherto  the  Congo,  in  spite  of  the  enormous  depths 
of  its  estuarine  course  and  the  volume  of  fresh  water  exceed- 
ing that  of  any  other  African  river  which  it  poured  into  the 
Atlantic,  had  been  represented  on  all  maps  as  little  else  than 
the  lower  course  of  the  Kwanoo,  of  which  the  Kasai  was  made 
an  affluent. 

Cameron's  journey  produced  remarkable  political  results. 
Firstly,  it  placed  definitely  before  the  British  Government  the 
option  of  assuming  a  Protectorate  over  the  inner  basin  of  the 
Con^o  founded  on  Cameron's  legitimate  treaties  with  the  chiefs. 
(This  proposal,  owing  to  the  opposition  of  Manchester  and 
Liverpool,  was  abruptly  dismissed.)  Secondly,  it  stirred  up  the 
Portuguese  to  great  activity  in  African  exploration,  so  that 
before  it  was  too  late  they  might  unite  across  Africa  the 
provinces  of  Angola  and  Mozambique.  Thirdly,  it  suggested 
to  the  King  of  the  Belgians  an  international  movement  with  its 
home  in  Brussels  which  would  relieve  England  ot  the  self- 
imposed  charge  (alternately  assumed  and  put  on  one  side  ac- 
cording as  the  national  pride  and  purse  demanded)  ot  policing 
and  civilizing  Africa. 

Whilst  these  eventualities  were  being  discussed  came  the 


THE  MODERN  HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  83 


levin  stroke  of  Stanley's  journey  clown  the  Congo  from 
Nyangwe  to  the  sea. 

The  revival  of  the  slave  trade  during  the  third  quarter  of 
the  nineteenth  century  had  obliged  the  British  men-of-war  off  the 
West  Coast  of  Africa  to  take  a  great  interest  in  the  Congo, 
especially  between  1870  and  1875.  Besides  the  attempts  to 
prevent  the  export  of  slaves,  British  naval  forces  had  to  put 
down  a  serious  state  of  piracy.  The  increasing  profits  of  trade 
on  the  Lower  Congo,  and  the  establishment  of  French,  Dutch, 
British,  and  Portuguese  trading  stations  in  a  land  owning  no 
allegiance  to  any  European  Power,  had  offered  inducements 
to  enterprising  natives  or  ex-slavers — mongrels  and  outcasts 
with  a  dash  of  European  blood — to  turn  pirate.  These  Congo 
pirates  lurked  in  the  numerous  creeks  between  the  islands  of 
the  estuarine  Congo  and  the  mainland.  When  strong  enough, 
they  attacked  isolated  trading  stations,  or  boats  or  small 
steamers  passing  up  or  down  the  Congo.  The  late  Admiral 
Sir  William  Hewett  distinguished  himself  by  his  bravery  in 
putting  down  this  piracy,  which  he  had  completely  suppressed 
in  1875. 

By  this  time  the  Congo  coast  had  become  particularly 
English  in  sympathies,  owing  to  the  constant  and  lucrative 
visits  of  British  men-of-war.  The  English  language  in  a 
corrupt  form  was  the  common  medium  of  trading  intercourse 
between  the  Cameroons  and  Banana  Point,  while  on  the  other 
hand  Portuguese  was  the  universal  medium  of  communication 
south  of  the  north  Congo  bank.  In  fact,  so  strong  had  British 
influence  become  In  these  waters  that  when  Stanley  emerged  at 
Boma  in  1877,  completing  the  work  half  done  by  Cameron, 
most  people  out  in  West  Africa  concluded  that  a  British  Pro- 
tectorate over  the  Congo  basin  and  the  north  bank  of  the 
Lower  Congo  would  inevitably  follow.^ 

But  the  work  of  the  King  of  the  Belgians  had  attracted  the 
attention  of  other  European  Powers  to  African  possibilities. 
The  German  African  Society  had  been  founded  in  1873.  As 
early  as  1875  a  German  traveller  (Capt.  von  Homeyer)  had 
proposed  the  annexation  of  the  Congo  by  Germany.  German 
explorers — Pogge,  and,  later,  Reichardt,  Bohm,  and  Kaiser — 
had  explored  and  mapped  the  countries  south-west  of  Tangan- 
yika, and  had  crossed  and  recrossed  southern  Congoland.  A 

'  It  is  said  that  the  King  of  the  Belgians  at  first  was  so  absolutely  certain  that 
Britain  would  take  up  Stanley's  and  Cameron's  discoveries  as  a  national  affair  that  he 
waited  until  November  1S78  before  forming  his  own  plans  for  utilizing  Stanley's 
discoveries. 


84     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


German  scientific  expedition  under  Dr.  Pechuel-Loesche  had 
spent  some  two  years  (rather  fruitlessly,  be  it  remarked)  on  the 
Luango  coast.  France,  as  soon  as  she  had  recovered  from  the 
shock  of  the  German  War,  had  begun  to  explore  the  hinter- 
land of  the  Gaboon,  and  had  despatched  under  international 
guise  De  Brazza  to  feel  his  way  towards  the  Upper  Congo.  The 
Dutch,  owing  to  their  great  commercial  success  on  the  Lower 
Congo,  had  begun  to  dream  of  a  new  Dutch  West  Africa. 
Portugal  had  determined  to  extend  her  rule,  in  spite  of  British 
prohibitions,  to  the  south  bank  of  the  Congo,  and  to  secure  the 
empire  of  the  Mwata  Yanvo.  Who  would  have  thought  at 
this  juncture,  to  quote  a  well-known  fable  without  any  offensive 
intent,  that  whilst  all  the  first  and  second-class  Powers  of  the 
Old  World  were  fencing  as  to  who  migrht  annex  the  Cong^o 
basin,  this  richest  prize  of  Africa  should  be  carried  off  by 
Reynard,  by  the  astute  ruler  of  a  tiny  northern  state,  and  with 
no  African  trade,  no  fleet,  and  no  colonial  ambitions  ? 

Stanley's  return  to  Europe  in  1878  did  not  find  the  British 
Government  of  that  day  in  a  mood  to  embark  on  Congo  enter- 
prise. The  Nearer  East  was  not  yet  pacified,  we  were  blushing 
a  little  at  the  rather  odd  trick  by  which  we  had  acquired 
Cyprus  ;  later  we  feared  complications  in  regard  to  Afghanistan, 
and  the  Zulu  cloud  was  gathering  to  burst.  In  addition  to  all 
this,  to  have  outrage  France,  Germany,  Portugal,  and  Holland, 
and  to  have  pledged  ourselves  to  an  expense  of  many  millions 
by  "protecting"  the  basin  of  the  Congo,  would  have  been  an 
act  of  unwisdom.  We  were  content  therefore  to  let  the  King 
of  the  Belgians  have  a  free  hand,  especially  as  he  entrusted  the 
commission  to  a  Welshman. 

Another  element  also  had  entered  the  problem  of  Congo 
development.  The  Arabs  of  Zanzibar  had  discovered  the 
Lualaba-Congo  and  the  Lomami  about  1865-6.  The  Nubian 
and  Sudanese- Arab  traders,  carrying  with  them  here  an  Italian 
and  there  a  great  German  explorer  like  Schweinfurth,  at  much 
the  same  period  had  crossed  the  watershed  of  the  Nile  in  the 
regrion  of  the  Bahr-al-Ghazal  and  had  entered  that  of  the  Wele- 
Muban^i,  the  northern  limits  of  the  Cono;o  basin. 

This  therefore  was  the  juncture  reached  by  Congo  history  m 
1878-9  when  Grenfell  and  Comber  were  attempting  in  vain  to 
pass  through  the  hostile  middlemen  to  Stanley  Pool.  The 
forces  of  the  Caucasian  were  converging  on  the  Congo  basin 
from  all  directions. 


CHAPTER  VI 


SAN  SALVADOR  AND  STANLEY  POOL 


OLLOWING  on  Comber's  report  to  the  Home  Com- 
mittee at  the  beginning  of  1879  the  Baptist  Mission  in 
Congoland  was  definitely  organized. 


In  June  1879  a  great  expedition  reached  the  Lower  Congo, 
including,  besides  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Thomas  Comber,  W.  Holman 
Bentley,^  and,  among  others,  H.  E.  Crudgington  and  John  S. 
Hartland. 

"  When  we  reached  San  Salvador  in  1879,"  writes  Bentley,  "it  was 
to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  heathen  land.  King  and  people  were 
wholly  given  to  fetishism  and  all  the  superstitions  and  cruelties  of  the 
Dark  Continent.  Some  ruined  walls  of  the  Cathedral  remained,  the 
chancel  arch,  and  part  of  a  Lady  chapel — the  sad  relics  of  a  failure.  In 
a  house  in  the  King's  compound  were  kept  a  large  crucifix  and  some 
images  of  saints,  but  they  were  only  the  King's  fetishes.  If  the  rains 
were  insufficient  they  were  sometimes  brought  out  and  carried  round 
the  town.  Some  old  people  about  the  country  called  themselves 
Minkwikizi — '  Believers ' — in  some  of  whom  there  seemed  to  have 
lingered  faint  glimmerings  of  such  light  as  had  been  brought  in  the  old 
times.  At  the  funeral  of  a  iminkivikizi  there  were  always  some  special 
ceremonies,  marks  of  crosses  on  the  shroud,  sprinkling  of  water,  etc., 
which  only  a  munkwikizi  could  perform  ;  they  were,  in  fact,  a  caste  of 
masters  of  the  ceremonies  at  great  funerals,  and  very  little  else." 

"  The  best  case  I  have  heard  of  was  that  of  the  old  uncle  of  NIemvo, 
the  young  man  who  has  helped  me  in  all  my  literary  work.  This  old 
man  had  a  small  brass  crucifix — his  '  Christo ' — to  which  he  prayed 
every  day,  asking  a  blessing  on  himself  and  people.  Later  on,  when  he 
was  dying,  too  weak  to  raise  himself,  he  had  the  crucifix  stuck  up  on  the 
wall  beside  his  bed,  where  he  could  see  it,  and  there  he  lay  dying,  sure 

^  The  Rev.  Dr.  W.  Holman  Bentley,  who  died  at  Bristol  in  1905,  was  one  of  the 
most  notable  of  the  Baptist  missionaries  on  the  Congo,  and  of  considerable  reputa- 
tion as  an  African  explorer  and  philologist.  He  has  written  two  travel  books  of  great 
merit,  especially  the  work  published  in  1900,  Pioneering  on  the  Congo.  He  published 
a  grammar  and  dictionary  of  the  Kongo  language  in  1886;  but  it  is  by  his  more 
extended  Dictionary  and  Grammar  of  1887  that  he  will  be  permanently  remem- 
bered. For  this  truly  remarkable  book,  packed  like  his  Pioneering  from  end  to  end 
with  original,  terse,  sound  information,  the  discriminating  University  of  Glasgow  con- 
ferred on  him  the  Doctor's  hood  in  1902. 

85 


86     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


in  his  heart  that  his  Christo  would  take  him  safely  to  heaven.  Sub- 
sequently, when  we  were  holding  our  services  at  San  Salvador,  on  two 
occasions  after  the  sermon,  have  people,  visitors  to  the  town,  risen  to 

urge  the  people  to  listen  to 
the  teaching  and  to  receive 
it ;  for  old  relatives  had 
told  them  long  before  of  a 
Saviour  who  died  for  all, 
and  now  the  same  story 
was  brought  to  them  again 
by  us.  Once  a  man,  and 
the  other  time  a  woman, 
gave  this  testimony." 

"  A  flat  wooden  cross, 
about  2  feet  long,  4  inches 
broad,  is  the  common  fetish 
which  confers  skill  in  hunt- 
ing. It  is  called  santii  {santa 
cruz,  'holy  cross'),  and  when- 
ever the  possessor  of  a  smitu 
kills  an  animal  its  blood  is 
daubed  on  the  santu.  It  is 
said  that  a  sa?itu  loses  its 
power  if  the  possessor  is 
guilty  of  any  immorality  ; 
in  such  case  a  fine  has  to  be 
paid  and  a  ceremony  gone 
through  before  its  power  can 
be  restored  by  a  doctor  of 
santu.  This  association  of 
the  necessity  of  a  pure  life 
with  the  effective  possession 
of  a  cross  is  an  interesting 
relic  of  the  old  teaching. 
Old  crucifixes  are  to  be 
found  amongst  the  insignia 
of  some  chiefs ;  and  now  and 
then  a  Portuguese  missal." 

There   must  have 

36.  IMAGE  OF  CHRIM  FOUXD  AT  SAN  SALVADOR,      i  1-      .      •  .'i 

USED  AS  A  FETISH.  SOME  TWO  OR  THREE  Dccn  soiTie  lingering  laea 
HUNDRED  YEARS  OLD  of  Portuouesc  sover- 

eignty  at  San  Salvador 
even  in  1879,  because  when  the  second  Baptist  expedition  was 
starting-  thither  from  Musuko  in  July  1877  the  King  of  San 
Salvador  sent  to  say  that  if  they  were  coming  to  "live 
always "  at  his  capital  they  ought  first  to  obtain  permission 
from  the  Portuguese  Governor  at  Loanda.    However,  to  do 


SAN  SALVADOR  AND  STANLEY  POOL  87 


so  would  have  been  to  have  admitted  the  rights  of  Portugal  in 
that  region,  which  was  not  then  a  thing  desired  by  the  Baptist 
Mission,  whose  representatives  in  those  days  dreaded  the  ex- 
tension of  Portuguese  influence,  believing  that  Portugal  would 
treat  Protestant  missions  as  Spain  had  dealt  with  the  Baptists 
and  Methodists  of  Fernando  P6.^ 

When  the  expedition  under  Comber  and  Bentley  approached 
the  city  of  San  Salvador  a  large  escort  came  to  meet  them 
waving  the  King's  flag.  "  There  was  something  remarkable 
about  that  flag ;  it  was  a  gold  five-pointed  star  on  a  dark-blue 
ground.  .  .  .  When  Stanley  arrived  he  adopted  that  identical 
design  for  the  flag  of  his  expedition  (because  it  represented  the 
lone  star  of  the  Federated  States  under  whom  he  had  fought  as 
a  volunteer  in  America).  It  afterwards  became  the  flag  of  the 
Congo  Independent  State."  [The  flag  itself  had  been  designed 
by  Mr.  de  Bloeme,  the  celebrated  Dutch  Consul,  and  long-time 
General  Manager  of  the  Dutch  House  at  Banana  Point.]  "  As 
we  neared  the  capital,  crowds  of  people  came  to  meet  us,  guns 
were  fired,  and  shouts  of  joy  were  raised.  We  entered  the 
town  and  sat  down  close  to  where  we  afterwards  built  the 
Mission  House." 

The  King  of  Kongo  (Dom  Pedro  V)  was  a  huge  man,  only 
five  feet  six  inches  in  height,  but  very  fat,  dressed  in  a  varie- 
gated jersey  and  mantle  of  scarlet  cloth,  with  an  old  solar  topi 
(pith  helmet)  on  his  head,  and  a  crucifix  and  sceptre  in  his  hand. 

Then  followed  the  usual  period  of  reaction — fevers  to  which 
these  neophytes  were  unfamiliar.  Just  a  month  after  their 
arrival  Mrs.  Comber  died.  But  in  spite  of  this  blow  and  several 
other  disappointments,  their  reception  by  the  King  of  Kongo 
was  so  cordial  that  it  was  impossible  to  feel  discouraged. 

San  Salvador  in  1879  was  a  town  of  about  two  hundred 
houses  of  grass  and  sticks,  built  on  a  plateau  1 800  feet  above 
sea-level,  a  plateau  nearly  everywhere  descending  abruptly  into 
valleys  two  hundred  feet  below.  Amidst  the  tangled  vegetation 
of  the  outskirts  of  the  town  could  be  traced  the  masonry  of  the 
ancient  walls,  fifteen  to  twenty  feet  high,  built  of  great  lumps  of 
haematite  iron  ore  and  slabs  of  limestone. 

'  As  an  antidote  to  Portugal,  the  Baptist  Mission  supported  warmly  from  the 
start  Stanley's  enterprise  and  the  creation  of  the  Congo  Free  State  under  the  King  of 
the  Belgians.  It  is  curious  to  note,  however,  that  although  the  Portuguese  took 
possession  of  nearly  all  the  Lower  Congo  and  the  kingdom  of  San  Salvador  in  1884, 
the  Baptist  missionaries  have  little  or  nothing  but  praise  to  record  of  the  action  of  the 
Portuguese  in  regard  to  religious  liberty  and  educational  and  other  facilities  accorded 
to  mission  work.  There  has  been  the  same  story  with  the  American  Protestant 
missions  in  .Angola.  Portugal  long  ago  advanced  towards  the  goal  of  religious  liberty 
to  an  extent  far  ahead  of  that  which  Spain  has  achieved  either  at  home  or  abroad. 


88     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


The  cathedral  in  the  middle  of  the  town  was  built  of  the 
same  materials.  In  1879  (according  to  Bentley)  the  west  front 
had  fallen  and  the  roof  had  long-  ago  disappeared,  but  the  other 
walls  were  fairly  preserved,  especially  the  chancel.  The  chancel 
arch  was  a  fine  span  of  large  dressed  stones.  The  high  altar 
was  covered  with  small  ferns,  but  in  fair  condition.  There  was 
a  Lady  chapel  on  the  north  side  of  the  nave,  and  a  vestry  on 
the  south  side  of  the  chancel  ;  three  hundred  to  four  hundred 
yards  to  the  west  were  the  extensive  ruins  of  a  convent,  and  in 


37.    RUINS  OF  CHAN'CEL  ARCH  OF  ANCIENT  PORTUGUESE  CATHEDRAL 
AT  SAN  SALVADOR 


various  places  in  the  jungle  were  to  be  found  groups  of  stones 
which  marked  the  sites  of  ancient  buildinos.  Near  the  west 
front  of  the  cathedral  were  the  Qraves  of  the  old  king-s  and 
notables. 

The  missionaries  at  first  lived  in  grass  houses,  but  towards 
the  close  of  1879  commenced  to  build  houses  of  stone  just 
inside  the  city  wall,  borrowing  for  the  purpose  some  loose  stone 
from  the  ruins  in  the  jungle.  Limestone  of  fair  quality  crops 
out  in  the  rock  formations  near  the  River  Luezi,  and  here  also 
was  an  old  lime-kiln  which  had  been  used  by  the  Portuguese. 
In  his  work  Pioneering  on  the  Congo  Bentley  describes  how  in 
order  to  get  the  limestone  to  the  kiln  (a  journey  of  two  miles 


SAN  SALVADOR  AND  STANLEY  POOL  89 


down  the  river)  they  had  first  of  all  to  fell  a  lofty  bonibax  tree 
and  get  the  natives  to  burn  it  and  adze  it  into  a  dug-out  canoe, 
then  to  blast  the  rock  with  gunpowder  and  send  the  limestone 
in  fragments  two  miles  up-river  in  this  roughly  made  canoe. 
Two  of  their  Cameroons  men  became  stone-mason  and 
carpenter.  They  found  that  "personal  supervision  was  neces- 
sary in  every  branch  of  the  work."  Three  days'  work  was 
done  in  one  day  when  they  were  about,  and  with  far  more  fun 
and  brightness.     Needless  to  say,  the  missionaries  worked 


30.     A    i;koUl"    lU--    fo.NCO    l'H)N"KKK>    AT   .Ml'Sl'K.o-  HAkll.ANM,    CKL'l » U  Ni  iTON, 

COMBER,  MR.   ,  A  TRADER,  MR.  GRESHOFF  (AN  AGENT  OF  THE  DUTCH 

house),  MRS.  GRENFELL,  AND  HOLMAN  BENTLEY 


harder  than  their  black  assistants,  and  each  party  interchanged 
knowledge,  African  ideas  being  interwoven  with  English 
notions  in  the  making  of  the  grass-thatched,  rough  stone 
house  with  the  rude  joinery  of  its  doorways  and  window- 
frames. 

The  house  was  finished  by  the  spring  of  1880.  The  three 
missionaries — Comber,  Bentley,  and  Crudgington — soon  be- 
came objects  of  interest  and  speculation,  not  so  much  in  San 
Salvador,  where  king  and  people  had  rapidly  got  used  to 
them,  but  throughout  all  the  surrounding  country,  amongst  all 
the  trading  people  who  came  from  far-distant  markets  in  the 
interior  to  exchange  their  produce  against  the  goods  of  the 


90     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


white  man,  brought  by  Konoo  traders  from  the  Lower  River 
or  the  port  of  Ambriz.  A  ferment  was  in  the  country,  the 
white  man  was  battering  at  the  barrier  which  had  so  long  shut 
out  the  inner  basin  of  the  Congo  from  his  direct  access  and 
knowledo^e. 

Only  a  few  days  after  Bentley  and  his  party  had  left 
Musuko  for  San  Salvador  Stanley  had  arrived  from  Zanzibar 
for  the  great  expedition  that  was  to  build  a  road  past  the  cata- 
racts of  the  Congo  and  place  a  steamer  on  the  Upper  River 
at  Stanley  Pool,  the  expedition  under  the  Comite  d'Etudes 
du  Haut  Congo  that  was  to  found  the  Cono-o  Free  State.  The 
"  middlemen  " — the  tribes  of  Kongo  speech  that  inhabited  the 
cataracts  region  between  San  Salvador  and  Stanley  Pool — 
were  aflame  at  the  threatened  breach  of  their  privileges. 
Except  for  Stanley's  wild  rush  down  the  river  in  1877  and  out 
into  the  white  man's  region  of  Boma  and  the  estuary,  no  force 
had  as  yet  challenged  the  right  of  the  middlemen  to  control 
the  trade — chiefly  in  ivory  and  palm  kernels — between  the 
regions  of  the  Upper  Congo  converging  to  Stanley  Pool  and 
the  Congo  coast  and  estuary  where  the  white  man's  trading 
stations  were  situated. 

Added  to  this,  there  were  already  national  and  religious 
jealousies  arising  among  the  European  nationalities  in  refer- 
ence to  the  Conoco.  Pioneering  on  the  Congro,  both  relio^ious 
and  secular,  was  rapidly  drifting  into  two  camps,  French  and 
English.  The  French  Roman  Catholic  missionaries^  estab- 
lished at  Landana  on  the  Luanoro  coast  under  Pere  Carrie  had 
attempted  eleven  years  before  to  settle  at  San  Salvador,  but 
had  been  prevented  by  sickness  and  other  difficulties.  Pere 
Carrie  wrote  a  letter  to  the  King  of  San  Salvador  which  is 
published  in  Dr.  Bentley 's  book,  but  which  except  for  this 
brief  reference  is  best  consigned  to  oblivion,  as  the  man  who 
wrote  it  must  have  long  since  felt  ashamed  of  such  an  action. 
The  Baptist  missionaries  were  described  as  "unclean  and  per- 
verse men  preaching  an  unclean  and  perverse  doctrine,"  and 
the  King  was  urged  to  expel  them.  Perhaps  the  pleasantest 
episode  in  connection  with  this  incident  was  that  Bentley  some 
time  afterwards  called  on  Monseigneur  Carrie  at  Boma,  and 
they  not  only  became  but  remained  friends. 

Three  other  nationalities  were  involved  in  this  struggle  for 
the  Congo,  this  zeal  for  its  exploitation,  commercial  or  political. 

^  Of  a  combined  Jesuit  and  undenominational  organization  styled  the  Mission  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Mary.  It  was  to  this  Mission  that  the 
great  traveller  Pere  Duparquet  belonged. 


SAN  SALVADOR  AND  STANLEY  POOL  91 


But  the  great  protagonists  were  England  and  France.  Erance, 
as  already  related,  had  had  her  eyes  on  the  Congo  since  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Erench  missionaries  had 
worked  with  some  success  on  the  Kakongo  and  Luango  coast 
in  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries,  and  the  Abbe 
Proyart  in  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  had 
written  disparagingly  of  the  Portuguese  as  very  anti-Christian 
in  their  dealinofs  with  the  natives.  On  the  other  hand,  since 
Captain  Maxwell's  survey  of  the  Lower  Congo  in  1796,  Great 
Britain  had  kept  an  eye  on  the  Congo.  British  naval  force  in 
an  increasing  degree  down  to  1875  had  administered  rough 
justice  between  traders  and  merchants  on  the  Lower  Congo,  and 
had  lost  some  lives  and  expended  much  powder  and  shot 
in  putting  down  the  slave  trade  and  the  misdeeds  of  piratical 
natives.  Stanley,  moreover,  though  calling  himself  an 
American,  was  known  to  be  a  Welshman,  and  it  was  not 
conceived  possible  that  the  King  of  the  Belgians  could  really 
be  shaping  a  Belgian  colony,  or  that  any  idea  of  a  "huge 
Liberia  " — an  immense  Native  State  in  the  Congo  basin — was 
feasible.  Stanley  therefore,  on  returning  in  1879,  could  only 
be  working  for  Great  Britain  in  disguise.  Already  Erance  was 
in  the  field  on  the  Upper  Congo  in  the  person  of  De  Brazza. 
The  Portuguese,  moreover,  were  doggedly  determined  either 
by  agreement  with  Great  Britain  or  with  Erance  that  they 
would  at  any  rate  extend  their  rule  up  to  the  south  bank  of  the 
Lower  ConQO. 

Then  there  was  the  o-reat  Dutch  trading  house,  which 
since  1869  had  grown  to  be  the  strongest  commercial  organiza- 
tion on  the  Lower  Congo.  The  Dutch  resented  the  idea  of 
Portuguese  annexation  lest  it  should  mean  the  extension  of 
that  fiscal  system  which  so  cruelly  fettered  the  trade  of  Angola. 
They  hoped  perhaps  that  in  the  clash  of  big  nations  Holland 
might  be  allowed  to  re-establish  herself  on  that  West  African 
coast  which  she  had  abandoned  as  a  ruling  power  in  1873.^ 

Then  there  was  Germany.  A  German  expedition  had 
been  studying  scientifically  the  Luango  coast  in  the  early 
'seventies.  German  explorers  had,  at  the  same  period,  crossed 
Tanganyika  and  had  also  penetrated  southern  Congoland  from 
the  west. 

So  that  when  in  1879-80  Thomas  Comber,  accompanied  by 
Crudgington  or  Hartland,  made  his  three  attempts  at  a  rush 
to  Stanley  Pool  through  the  Makuta  district  south  of  the 

^  When  the  Dutch  possessions  on  the  Gold  Coast  were  ceded  to  Great  Britain  in 
return  for  compensation  and  rights  in  the  Far  East, 


92     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Congo,  he  met  with  marked  hostility  on  the  part  of  the 
suspicious  natives  of  the  INIakuta  country,  where  resided 
the  leading  middlemen  who  traded  between  Stanley  Pool 
and  San  Salvador.  On  his  third  attempt  to  get  to  Tungwa 
and  beyond,  in  August  1880,  Comber  though  thwarted  in 
this  intention  turned  to  the  south  and  on  the  edge  of 
the  Zombo  plateau  discovered  the  magnificent  Arthington 
Falls.  The  River  Mbidizi  or  Mbirizi  (Ambriz)  descends 
tumultuously  and  in  several  magnificent  straight  plunges  of 


39.    THE  MBIDIZI  OR  .MBIRIZI  RIVER  BELOW  THE  ARTHINGTON  FALLS 


150-300  feet,  a  thousand  feet  in  all,  to  the  coastal  plain.  These 
falls  are  only  thirty  miles  from  San  Salvador,  and  should 
be  a  magnificent  reservoir  of  power  for  future  Congo 
industries. 

Not  easily  daunted,  Comber  and  Hartland  started  again  for 
Makuta  and  Stanley  Pool  in  the  late  autumn  of  1880.  In  one 
of  Bwaka-matu's  towns,  six  miles  beyond  Tungwa,  he  and 
Hartland  (their  carriers  all  but  one  Cameroons  attendant  had 
long  since  abandoned  them)  were  attacked  with  stones  and 
sticks,  and  at  last  had  to  run  for  their  lives.  Shots  were  fired 
at  them,  and  Comber  was  struck  by  a  bullet  in  the  middle  of 
the  back.  He  fell  ;  after  a  minute's  hesitation  the  people 
rushed  up  to  despatch  him.     But  the  bullet  fortunately  had  not 


40.    rUE  SHORE  OF 


LEOPOLDVILLIC,  STANI,F,V  POOL,  IN  1883 
Sketch  by  the  author. 


SAN  SALVADOR  AND  STANLEY  POOL  95 


penetrated  to  the  lungs.  Therefore  Comber  after  the  first 
shock  picked  himself  up,  and  he  and  Hartland  ran  for  their 
lives  literally  for  miles,  only  dropping  into  a  walk  as  they 
passed  through  villages  which  had  not  yet  heard  the  news. 
They  were  repeatedly  fired  at  and  attacked  with  stones  and 
knives,  but  managed  to  out-distance  their  pursuers  and  regain 
the  town  of  Tungwa.  Here,  though  no  attention  was  paid  to 
them,  they  dared  not  wait.  Rivers  had  to  be  swum  or  forded. 
In  one  place  a  kindly  woman  gave  them  a  drink  of  water  and 
a  little  cassava.  Their  one  faithful  negro  companion  was 
a  Cameroons  boy  who  had  been  a  personal  attendant  of 
Comber  for  some  years.  Although  the  white  men  were 
wounded,  either  with  sticks,  stones,  knives,  or  a  bullet,  they 
covered  eighty  miles  in  three  days  and  a  half  No  sooner  was 
Comber's  bullet  extracted  than  he  went  down  with  the  first 
recorded  case  of  black- water  fever  amongst  Congo  missionaries. 

Curiously  enough,  the  chief  of  Makuta — Bwaka-matu — who 
had  ordered  these  attacks  on  the  white  men,  fell  sick,  and  in 
seven  months  died.  The  chief  of  Tungwa,  the  town  where 
the  hostility  had  begun,  also  died,  together  with  a  number  of 
important  men  of  the  district.  Finally  smallpox  came  and 
devastated  the  whole  region.  Naturally,  these  coincidences 
suggested  to  some  of  the  superstitious  natives  that  attacks  on 
missionaries  were  the  forerunners  of  ill-luck. 

But  while  Comber  still  pegged  away  unsuccessfully  at  the 
southern  route  (he  attempted  this  journey  no  less  than  thirteen 
times),  Bentley  and  Crudgington  resolved  to  make  their  attempt 
at  Stanley  Pool  along  the  north  bank  of  the  Congo.  Stanley 
had  opened  up  the  road  past  the  cataracts  as  far  as  Isangila, 
and  De  Brazza  had  just  come  down  along  the  north  bank  from 
Stanley  Pool,  the  first  European  after  Stanley  to  see  that 
wonderful  portal  beyond  the  cataracts  through  which  the 
traveller  emerges,  water-borne,  to  steam,  sail,  or  row  over  nine 
thousand  miles  of  navigable  rivers.  Grenfell  had  reached 
Musuko  and  San  Salvador  in  1880.  In  1881  Bentley'  was  free 
to  take  up  the  role  of  avant-courier. 

He  and  his  companion  Crudgington  crossed  over  to  Vivi 
and  journeyed  along  the  north  bank  of  the  Congo  through  the 

'  Ever  since  in  1879  Robert  Arthington  had  offered  the  cost  of  a  steamer  for 
the  Upper  Congo  and  a  fund  for  her  maintenance,  the  missionaries  at  San  Salvador 
had  chafed  at  their  detention  in  the  region  of  the  known.  But,  as  Bentley  subse- 
quently wrote  :  — 

"The  time  spent  at  San  Salvador  before  the  other  road  to  the  Fool  opened  was 
not  in  any  way  lost  time  ;  it  gave  us  an  opportunity  for  that  quiet  study  of  the 
language  which  furnished  so  much  power  in  our  work  afterwards." 


96     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


country  of  the  Basundi  and  Babwende  to  Stanley  Pool.  The 
journey  there  and  back  again  to  Vivi — about  five  hundred 
miles — was  performed  in  forty-three  days.  With  the  exception 
of  De  Brazza,  they  were  the  first  Europeans  to  visit  Stanley 
Pool  since  its  discovery  by  Stanley  in  1876. 

Bentley  and  Crudgington  met  with  a  very  hostile  reception 
at  Nshasa  on  the  south  shore  of  the  Pool,  but  a  fairly  friendly 
one  from  Ngaliema  at  Ntamo  or  Kintamo,  on  the  site  of  the 
modern  capital  of  Leopoldville.  They  were  badly  received  at 
Nshasa  by  the  wild  Lali  people  because  it  was  thought  they 
were  forerunners  of  Stanley's  expedition.  Nshasa  or  Kinshasa 
had  been  visited  by  De  Brazza^  in  1 880-1.  He  had  placed  a 
Senegalese  sergeant  (Malamine)  and  one  or  two  men  there, 
and  had  warned  the  people  that  Stanley,  the  representative  of 
another  race  of  white  people,  was  coming  up  the  Congo  to 
take  the  country,  and  that  they,  the  people  of  Nshasa,  belonged 
to  France,  and  were  resolutely  to  refuse  any  other  protectors. 

1  Pierre  Savorgnan  de  Brazza  was  an  Italian,  possibly  of  Venetian  origin,  whose 
family  originally  came  from  the  island  of  Brazza,  off  the  Dalmatian  coast.  He  was 
actually  born  in  1852  on  a  vessel  in  the  harbour  of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Brazil,  but  entered 
the  French  Navy  in  1870  and  became  naturalized  as  a  Frenchman.  His  subsequent 
career  as  a  French  explorer  and  administrator  is  well  known,  as  well  as  that  of  his 
brother,  Jean.  He  was  a  man — especially  where  negroes  were  concerned — of  most 
winning  personality,  able  to  create  in  a  short  time  quite  a  feeling  of  devotion  to 
himself  and  his  ideas. 


CHAPTER  VII 


GRENFELL'S  FIRST  JOURNEY  BEYOND 
STANLEY  POOL 

\  S  the  result  of  the  Bentley-Crudgington  journey  came 
/  \  the  strong  desire  to  establish  as  quickly  as  possible  a 
J.  \.  mission  station  on  the  shores  of  Stanley  Pool  which 
might  be  made  the  base  for  operations  along  the  thousands 
of  miles  of  navigable  waterway  in  the  heart  of  Africa  to 
which  Stanley  Pool  is  the  entrance.  The  news  of  their  suc- 
cessful and  rapid  trip  to  Stanley  Pool  produced  from  their 
enthusiastic  supporters  in  England  a  steel  boat  known  as  the 
Plymouth,  which,  sent  out  in  sections,  was  put  together  on 
the  Congo  in  the  cataract  region  above  Isangila,  where  there 
is  a  stretch  of  ninety  miles  of  navigable  river  as  far  as  Man- 
yanga,  a  notable  help  in  those  days  in  the  transport  of  goods 
over  the  nearly  three  hundred  miles  of  mountainous  country 
that  lay  between  Vivi  or  Matadi  (in  communication  with  the  sea) 
and  Stanley  Pool.  Comber,  Grenfell,  and  Bentley  performed 
a  series  of  rapid  journeys  backwards  and  forwards  between 
Manyanga  (in  the  middle  of  the  cataract  region)  and  Musuko, 
and  founded  a  station  called  Wathen  (after  Sir  Charles  Wathen, 
of  Bristol)  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Congo,  opposite  the 
modern  French  frontier  post  of  Manyanga. 

In  1881-2  Grenfell  returned  to  England,  and  stayed  there 
to  superintend  the  construction  of  the  Mission  steamer  Peace, 
which  the  late  Robert  Arthington  had  provided  in  addition  to 
the  steel  sailing-boat,  the  Plymouth,  given  by  Plymouth  sup- 
porters of  the  mission.  The  Peace,  in  which  so  many  famous 
journeys  were  made  in  Congo  exploration  with  Grenfell  as  the 
captain,  and  with  many  a  great  Congo  explorer — von  Fran9ois, 
Wissmann,  Sims,  Crampel,  Vangele,  and  Mense — as  a  guest, 
was  seventy  feet  long  and  ten  feet  six  inches  broad.  She  was 
divided  into  seven  watertight  compartments  of  Bessemer  steel 
coated  with  zinc  ;  was  flat-bottomed,  or  at  any  rate  with  a  keel 
only  three  inches  deeper  than  the  sides,  and  drew  no  more  than 
I.— H  97 


98     GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


eighteen  inches  with  six  tons  of  cargo  on  board.  Her  ordinary 
speed  was  nine  miles  an  hour,  which  could  under  pressure  be 
increased  to  twelve. 

All  the  parts  of  this  steamer  had  to  be  constructed  (a 
necessity  new  in  those  days)  in  parcels,  of  which  the  heaviest 
must  not  exceed  65  pounds,  so  that  it  could  be  carried  on  a 
man's  head.  Three  special  loads,  however,  were  of  greater 
weights,  ranging  from  112  pounds  to  250  pounds.  These, 
where  it  was  absolutely  necessary,  had  to  be  slung  to  long 
poles,  the  ends  of  which  were  carried  on  the  shoulders  of 
porters.  Of  course  the  whole  of  the  steamer  loads  could 
be  conveyed  by  ships  from  England  to  Underbill  (the  new 
mission  station  founded  in  1882  at  the  end  of  Lower  Congo 
navigability,  near  the  present  town  of  Matadi),  and  after 
they  had  been  transported  mainly  by  porters  and  perhaps 
here  and  there  by  vehicles  over  Stanley's  rough  road  round 
the  cataracts  to  Isangila  they  could  avail  themselves  of 
boats  and  steamers  already  plying  on  the  ninety  miles  of 
navigable  water  between  Isangila  and  Manyanga.  Thence 
onwards  was  a  terrible  region  alongf  the  south  bank  of  the 
Congo,  a  continual  up-and-down  from  high  hills  into  deep 
valleys  and  across  innumerable  rushing  streams  for  some- 
thing like  160  miles  till  the  broadening  waters  of  the  Congo 
were  reached  at  the  entrance  into  Stanley  Pool.  Thomas 
Comber  had  founded  the  station  of  the  Baptist  Mission  known 
as  Arthington  on  the  western  outskirts  of  Leopoldville,  over- 
looking the  first  great  rapids  of  Ntamo.  The  Congo  is  here 
about  a  mile  in  breadth,  and  the  broad  waters  of  Stanley  Pool 
about  three  miles  distant.^ 

George  Grenfell  and  his  wife  reached  Arthington  in  July 
1883,  some  weeks  after  the  present  writer  had  left  Leopoldville 
to  return  to  Europe.  Leaving  Mrs.  Grenfell  to  reside  at 
Arthington,  which  was  to  be  his  headquarters  for  several  years, 
Grenfell  then  returned  to  the  lower  river  to  expedite  the  trans- 
port of  the  Peace  in  her  many  sections  and  parcels  from  the 
limit  of  ocean  steamer  navigation,  250  miles  more  or  less  to 
Arthington  on  Stanley  Pool.  So  energetic  was  he,  and  so 
helped  by  the  native  chiefs  and  their  men — a  new  phase 
altogether,  so  far,  in  the  history  of  Congo  development — that 
instead  of  taking  two  years  to  transport  his  steamer  over  this 
distance  to  Stanley  Pool  [it  had  taken  Stanley  that  time  to 
bring  up  the  En  Avant  from  Vivi  to  Leopoldville,  but  then 

1  Stanley  Pool  is  approximately  eighteen  miles  long  and  fourteen  miles  broad. 
It  was  first  correctly  surveyed  and  mapped  by  Comber  and  Bentley  in  1883. 


loo   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Stanley  had  had  to  make  roads  and  fight  the  white  man's  battle 
with  stubborn  savages],  Grenfell  accomplished  his  task  in  a 
little  over  four  months.  The  result  was  the  Mission  enter- 
prise was  caught  napping,  and  a  considerable  interval  of  time 
elapsed  before  the  engineers  ordered  from  England  for  the 
construction  of  the  Peace  could  arrive  at  Stanley  Pool.  After 
making  every  preparation  for  the  accommodation  of  these 
engineers  and  for  the  construction  of  the  Peace,  Grenfell 
decided  to  start  on  a  voyage  of  exploration  in  the  Peace  s  boat, 
a  whale-boat  which  had  been  sent  out  at  the  same  time  as  the 
Peace,  and  which  was  afterwards  to  be  towed  by  her.  (It  was 
in  this  boat  that  Bentley  and  Comber  explored  the  Pool  in  the 
summer  of  1883.) 

Before  describing  this  first  remarkable  journey  of  explora- 
tion undertaken  by  Grenfell  alone,  it  might  be  as  well  to  finish 
the  history  of  the  little  steamer  in  which  his  greatest  journeys 
were  to  be  made.  The  engineers  sent  out  from  England  to 
put  the  Peace  together  got  wet  through  in  rainstorms  as  they 
were  travelling  up  the  cataract  region  of  the  Congo,  and  died 
after  a  few  days'  illness.  When  Grenfell  returned  from  his 
boat  journey  up  to  the  Equator  he  determined  to  construct  the 
Peace  himself.  To  assist  him  he  had  nine  negro  artisans  from 
Sierra  Leone,  Accra,  Cameroons,  and  Fernando  P6.^  On  the 
13th  of  June  1884  the  Peace  was  successfully  launched,  and 
performed  a  trial  trip  at  the  rate  of  ten  knots  an  hour.  Gren- 
fell's  assiduous  watching  of  her  construction  at  Chiswick,  on 
the  Thames,  together  with  his  experience  as  a  young  man 
(before  entering  the  Baptist  Mission)  in  purchasing  and  in 
inspecting  machinery  for  a  firm  at  Birmingham  stood  him  in 
good  stead.  At  the  same  time  he  was  not  a  professional 
mechanician,  and  the  successful  construction  of  the  Peace  under 
such  circumstances  and  with  only  the  unskilled  aid  of  the 
negro  carpenters  shows  that  he  was  a  man  of  unusual  intelli- 
gence and  energy. 

His  first  exploring  journey  on  the  Upper  Congo  commenced 
on  January  28  1884  in  a  small  whale-boat  which  belonged  to 
the  equipment  of  the  Peace  and  which  was  manned  by  five  Kru 
boatmen.'-^    Two  Congo  servants  were  taken  as  well,  to  cook 

'  Oskar  Baumann  in  his  book  on  Fernando  P6  remarks  that  Grenfell  was  the 
only  European  who  inspired  enough  confidence  in  the  suspicious  natives  of  that 
island  to  induce  one  of  their  race  to  accompany  him  to  the  Upper  Congo. 

^  Between  1878  and  1885  the  Baptist  missionaries  had  to  rely  much  on  Kru 
labour  from  Liberia  for  porterage  and  boating  work.  The  "  Kruboys  "  are  the  real 
Liberians,  the  seafaring  natives  of  the  "  Grain  Coast"  who  have  never  been  slaves  and 
who  despite  some  faults  have  been  faithful  allies  of  the  white  man  in  the  development 
of  West  Africa. 


I02   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


for  the  Kru  boys  and  the  white  men.  Five  hundred  brass  rods, 
the  then  well-recognized  staple  of  barter,  and  a  box  of  cloth, 
knives,  looking-glasses,  and  beads  were  taken  for  the  purchase 
of  food  or  the  giving  of  presents  on  the  way.  Provisions  laid 
in  by  the  party  consisted  of  chikwanga,'  a  bag  of  rice  for  the 
men,  Epps's  cocoa,^  tea,  sugar,  and  a  small  supply  of  medicine. 

The  first  part  of  the  journey  from  the  shore  below  the 
station  of  Arthington  to  the  open  waters  of  the  Pool  was  a 
long  and  tedious  pull  for  the  rowers,  out  of  all  proportion  to 
the  actual  distance.  The  entrance  into  the  Pool  was  round  a 
sharp  bluff,  christened  in  the  beginning  of  1883  Kallina  Point.^ 
On  the  opposite  shores  to  the  north,  two  miles  away,  was  the 
then  recently  founded  French  station  of  Brazzaville,  at  that 
time  a  collection  of  tumble-down  huts  half  buried  in  grrass  and 
bananas.  The  bank  beyond  Brazzaville  was  steep  for  a  few 
miles,  like  that  of  the  south  shore  as  far  as  Nshasa  Point. 
Then  it  rapidly  sank  to  a  marshy  level  as  the  shores  retreated 
on  either  side  from  the  eye,  while  the  Pool  broadened  out 
almost  into  a  vast  circle,  the  extent  being  indicated  here  and 
there  not  by  any  water  horizon  (for  the  water  surface  was 
broken  by  a  great  central  island  and  many  islets),  but  by  the  tops 
of  distant  hills.  Far  away  to  the  north-east  gleamed  the  semicircle 
of  white,  sandy  cliffs  named  by  Stanley  after  those  of  Dover. 

^  Chikwanga  during  the  early  'eighties  was  the  principal  article  of  food  to  be 
obtained  on  the  Congo.  It  was  like  sour,  glutinous  dough,  and  was  made  from  the 
pounded  roots  of  the  manioc  or  cassava.  It  is  usually  now  known  as  Kivanga 
without  the  Swahili  prefix. 

^  The  Baptist  Mission  on  Stanley  Pool  in  these  days  of  the  early  'eighties  was 
hospitable  to  many  an  exhausted  traveller  who  came  their  way,  independent  of 
nationality,  colour,  or  religion.  They  were  not  over-well  supplied  with  European 
food,  but  managed  to  get  up  a  large  stock  of  Epps's  cocoa  and  Huntley  and  Palmer's 
biscuits.  This  cocoa  boiled  with  goats'  milk  was  indeed,  as  the  old  advertisements 
ran,  "grateful,  comforting."  Many  a  visitor  to  the  station  of  Arthington  or  a  sick 
man  at  the  adjoining  Belgian  camp  at  Leopoldville  (including  the  present  writer)  has 
been  nursed  back  to  health  and  soundness  by  the  cocoa  and  biscuits  offered  at  a 
critical  moment  by  Comber,  Grenfell,  or  Bentley. 

Lieutenant  Kallina  was  an  Austro-Hungarian  subject  engaged  for  the  African 
International  Association.  He  was  filled  with  a  great  ambition  to  be  a  Congo  ex- 
plorer, and  if  possible  to  get  ahead  of  Stanley  in  the  expected  revelations  of  the 
interior  basin  of  the  river.  Stanley  had  already  ordered  the  founding  of  stations  for 
his  Committee  in  1882  as  far  up  the  Congo  as  Mswata,  near  the  Kwa  mouth,  and  at 
Bolobo  ;  but  he  had  left  behind  him  orders  that  a  further  advance  was  to  be  delayed 
until  he  should  return  from  Europe  and  the  construction  of  his  new  steamer,  the 
A. I. A.,  should  be  finished  ;  for  he  feared  the  rash  handling  of  the  wild  natives  by  his 
subordinates.  But  Lieutenant  Kallina  cared  little  for  obeying  orders.  He  obtained  a 
native  canoe,  and  started  away  to  enter  Stanley  Pool  and  pass  to  the  unknown  upper 
river.  The  current  of  the  Congo  after  it  leaves  the  Pool  and  before  it  plunges  over 
the  first  rapids  is  very  strong,  and  as  Lieutenant  Kallina  rounded  the  bluff  at  the  exit 
from  the  Pool  his  canoe  capsized.  His  memory  is  retained  in  the  geographical  name 
of  Kallina  Point,  and  for  some  months  this  point  was  almost  the  w  plus  ultra  of  all 
who  were  not  able  to  make  use  of  a  large  boat  or  steamer. 


FIRST  JOURNEY  BEYOND  STANLEY  POOL  103 


As  one  rows  or  steams  across  Stanley  Pool  the  course 
follows  almost  perforce  the  southern  shore  of  the  central  island 
of  Bamu,  as  the  northern  passage  on  the  other  side  of  that 
island  is  strewn  with  many  sandbanks  and  shallows.  The  pre- 
sent writer  was  taken  by  the  northern  route  when  he  crossed 
the  Pool  in  the 
early 


part  of 
3,  as  the 
journey  was 
made  in  canoes, 
and  the  canoe- 
men  preferred 
the  smoother 
water,  where 
one  was  safer 
from  the  attacks 
of  hippopotami. 
But  as  Grenfell 
remarks  in  his 
notes  on  his  first 
journey,  the 
traveller  is  not 
conscious  of  the 
great  expanse 
of  the  Pool  as 
he  makes  this 
journey  along 
the  coast  of 
Bamu  Island  : 
he  seems  mere- 
ly to  be  tra- 
versing a  some- 


42.  J  HE  WOODED  BANKS  OF  THE  CONGO  I'.KTWEEN  STANLEY 
POOL  AND  THE  KWA  JUNCTION,  RLSING  TO  ABOUT 
800  FEET  ABOVE  THE  STREAM  LEVEL 


what  broader 
expanse  of  the 
Congo. 

As  you  approach  the  further,  the  northern  or  eastern  end  of 
Stanley  Pool  the  scenery  becomes  very  beautiful.  On  the 
west  is  a  range  of  bold  and  picturesque  heights,  the  flanks  of 
which  are — or  were— covered  with  dense,  dark  green  forest. 
In  the  middle  distance,  a  spit— really  a  series  of  flat  islands — 
extends  from  the  hilly  eastern  shore,  and  these  promontories  of 
low  land  are  dotted  with  groves  of  fine  and  spreading  trees 
which  stand  out  in  vivid  summer  ofreen  against  the  backoround 
of  blue  hills.    Here  and  there  is  a  graceful  fan  palm.    As  one 


I04   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


emerges  from  the  Pool  to  ascend  the  narrowing  Congo,  the 
hills  on  the  east  rise  to  a  height  of  nearly  a  thousand  feet  sheer 
up  from  the  banks  of  the  river,  and  are  clothed  with  splendid 
hanging  forests. 

The  scenery  of  wood  and  water  is  diversified  all  round  the 
shores  of  the  Pool  by  the  multitudes  of  water-birds,  especially 
the  flocks  of  white  egrets.  When  one  has  entered  the  main 
stream  of  the  Conoo  both  above  and  below  the  Pool,  water- 
birds  are  scarce  so  long  as  the  current  is  swift  and  the  banks 
are  steep. 

Grenfell  describes  thus  the  scenery  of  the  gorge  of  the 
upper  river  north  of  Stanley  Pool  : — 

"  Steep,  tree-clad  hills  of  a  thousand  feet  or  so  on  either  bank  of  the 
vast,  rushing  Congo  reflected  their  dark  green  hues  in  its  waters, 
making  in  the  ev^ening  light  so  sombre  a  picture  that  one  could  well 
excuse  [if  tlie  mystery  had  not  been  already  solved]  a  superstitious 
dread  of  attempting  to  penetrate  the  unknown  through  such  an  un- 
propitious-looking  gate.  ...  So  it  was  when  I  first  saw  it,  the  effect 
being  partly  due  to  the  contrast  between  the  brilliantly  white  Dover 
Cliffs  [the  glistening  sandbanks  which  we  have  just  left]  and  the  sober 
hues  of  the  tree-clad  hills  which  rise  almost  precipitously  from  the 
water's  edge." 

Along  this  relatively  narrow  gorge  of  the  Congo,  between 
Stanley  Pool  and  the  mouth  of  the  Kwa,  Grenfell  was  careful 
to  note  the  position  of  the  reefs  of  hard  sandstone  so  that  he 
might  have  some  knowledge  of  the  river  when  he  should 
navigate  his  steamer  later  on  ;  for  he  guessed  rightly  that  this 
portion  of  the  Congo  course  is  dangerous  in  parts  to  navigation 
fronl  the  submerged  reefs  and  isolated  hummocks  of  rock. 
Above  the  junction  of  the  main  Congo  with  the  Kwa  the  hills 
on  either  side  of  the  great  river  decrease  in  height  and  stretch 
away  in  divergent  lines  to  the  east  and  west,  while  the  river 
broadens  out  to  three  miles  wide. 

Near  the  shore  this  part  of  the  Congo  bristles  with  rocks, 
but  is  almost  without  islands.  In  fact,  had  Grenfell  been  travel- 
ling in  a  wooden  boat  (especially  as  he  was  without  a  practised 
pilot)  he  could  scarcely  have  survived  the  bumps  he  received 
from  unsuspected  reefs  and  jagged  rocks  or  concealed  snags,  or 
from  the  attacks  of  hippopotami.  The  present  writer  made 
this  ascent  of  the  river  as  far  as  Bolobo  a  year  before  Grenfell's 
attempt,  in  one  of  Stanley's  steel  boats,  but  some  months  after- 
wards had  to  descend  the  river  in  a  native  canoe.  Two  other 
canoes  went  with  him,  one  containing  men  in  the  service  of 
Stanley's  expedition,  and   the   other  his  own  servants  and 


FIRST  JOURNEY  BEYOND  STANLEY  POOL  105 


baggage.  The  foremost  of  the  three  canoes  was  upset  by  a 
hippopotamus  in  the  middle  of  the  Congo,  and  none  of  its 
occupants  were  seen  again,  having  probably  been  dragged 
below  by  crocodiles.  The  traveller  was  thus  presented  with  a 
most  disagreeable  alternative  in  canoe-travelling.  If  he  paddled 
close  inshore  he  was  liable  to  be  attacked  and  swamped  by 
a  hippopotamus.  If  on  the  other  hand  the  canoe  was  directed 
out  into  the  centre  of  the  course  of  this  enormous  river  it 
might  very  well  be  capsized  by  the  swirling,  racing,  eddying 


43.  THE  ROCKY  POINTS  OR  REEFS  WHICH  STRETCH  OUT  INTO  THE  CONGO 
OR  KASAI  AND  OFTEN  CAUSE  STEAMERS  TO  COME  TO  GRIEF 

current,  and  of  course  the  Congo  in  mid-stream  was  very  deep 
and  swarming  with  crocodiles. 

Grenfell  called  in  at  Bolobo,  which  had  not  long  before 
been  the  easternmost  of  Stanley's  stations.  This  was  one  of  a 
series  of  Bayanzi  or  Babangi  trading  towns  along  the  east  bank, 
the  people  of  which  were  very  turbulent,  and  at  that  time  not  at 
all  well  disposed  towards  the  settlement  of  Europeans.  They  had 
in  fact  stopped  the  present  writer  from  proceeding  further  on  his 
journey  in  the  previous  year.  But  since  then  Stanley  had  passed 
up-river,  making  light  of  their  opposition,  and  had  founded  a  suc- 
cession of  stations  on  the  main  stream  all  the  way  to  the  Stanley 
Falls,  especially  at  Lukolela,  at  "  Equatorville  "  (the  point  where 
the  Equator  cut  the  Congo,  since  named  Coquilhatville),  and  at 
Bangala,  nearly  two  degrees  north  of  the  Equator. 


io6   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


The  riv^er  banks  of  the  Concro,  north  of  the  Kwa  conflu- 
ence,  were  at  that  time  chiefly  settled  by  the  enterprising 
Babangi  people,  also  known  as  Bayanzi — the  name  applied  to 
them  by  the  Ba- Kongo,  while  they  are  known  to  the  Bateke 
as  "  Babaiio."  ^ 

At  Lukolela,  a  station  which  Stanley  had  founded  in  the 
autumn  of  1883,  Grenfell  met  a  young  Yorkshireman  named 
E.  J.  Glave,  who  was  afterwards  to  become  famous  for  a  remark- 
able trans- African  journey  which  he  performed  in  1892-3  as  a 
correspondent  of  The  Century  Magazine  and  other  American 
journals." 

Above  Bolobo,  except  opposite  Lukolela  and  Ngombe,  the 
Congo  is  exceedingly  broad — perhaps  seven  to  twenty  miles  in 
places.    This  is  the  region  Grenfell  describes  as  : 

"  a  great  central  swamp  which  extends  east  and  west,  with  occasional 
short  breaks,  for  about  seven  hundred  miles.  .  .  .  The  opposite  bank  of 
the  river  cannot  be  seen,  it  is  often  below  the  horizon,  beyond  a  wilder- 
ness of  shallow  water  and  low,  sandy  islands,  some  of  which  are  covered 
with  a  dense  vegetation.  Even  the  tall  trees  are  crowned'  and.  draped 
with  beautiful  creepers.  There  is  much  Usiiea  lichen.  A  narrow 
channel,  seldom  more  than  two  hundred  yards  wide,  separates  the  bank 
from  the  islands.  Through  this  one  picks  one's  way  with  difficulty,  often 
through  herds  of  hippos,  which  bellow  and  grunt  in  the  most  threatening 
manner.  .  .  .  The  islands  at  which  one  stops  to  pass  the  night  are  re- 
garded by  the  hippopotami  as  their  private  property.  On  this  first 
journey  the  hippos  would  boldly  assail  our  camp.  The  boys  attempted 
to  drive  them  off  by  hurling  firewood  at  them,  but  as  this  did  not 
deter  them  I  was  obliged  to  shoot,  with  the  result  that  the  natives 
passing  by  the  next  morning  found  to  their  surprise  some  tons  of  fresh 
meat  lying  on  the  sandbank." 

Whilst  on  this  boat  journey  Grenfell  stopped  at  the  newly 
founded  "Equator  Station"  ("situated  on  another  ridge  beside 
the  river,  about  thirty  feet  high,  a  ridge  extending  for  some 

'  The  Bateke  are  the  dominant  race  on  the  river  banks  at  Stanley  Pool  and  thence 
northwards  to  the  Kwa  confluence,  and  further  north  still  on  the  western  shore.  They 
are  connected  linguistically  with  the  tribes  of  the  upper  Ogowe  and  of  the  lower 
Kasai,  Kwango,  Kwilu,  and  Lukenye.  They  have  many  peculiar  customs  of  their 
own,  and  are  a  well-marked  group.  The  Bayanzi  or  Babangi  speak  a  Bantu  language 
which  is  less  corrupt  than  that  of  the  Bateke,  a  little  more  like  the  eastern  Bantu 
tongues.  They  are  the  people  of  the  lower  Mubangi,  and  the  great  commercial  race 
of  the  broad,  lake-like  region  of  the  western  Upper  Congo,  ranging  between  the 
Mangala  country  on  the  east,  about  as  far  as  20°  Long.  E.,  and  the  Kwa  mouth  and 
Stanley  Pool  on  the  west,  where  in  former  days  they  and  the  Bateke  used  to  meet 
the  Congo  settlers  from  San  Salvador  and  the  coast  region  and  exchange  the  ivory 
and  slaves  of  the  Upper  Congo  for  the  trade  goods  of  the  Europeans  brought  up  by 
the  Congo  middlemen. 

-  He  died  of  malarial  fever  at  Underbill,  at  the  house  of  the  Rev.  Lawson 
Forfeitt,  Secretary  to  the  Baptist  Mission,  in  1895.  His  papers  were  published  in 
1896. 


Note It  was  probably  the  northern  or  Ibenga  Channel  which  was  entered  by  Grenfell  in  his  whaleboat  on  Feb.  20,  '84. 

To  /ace  f.  io6 


FIRST  JOURNEY  BEYOND  STANLEY  POOL  107 


ten  miles  .  .  .  houses  built  of  sun-dried  bricks.  .  .  .  Stanley's 
people  under  two  Belgian  officers  had  only  been  here  some 
eight  months,  but  already  there  were  European  vegetables 
growing  in  the  garden  ").  From  this  station  he  struck  across 
to  the  west  bank  at  Bulungu,  and  coasted  along  it  till  (about 
February  20th  1884)  by  accident  or  design  he  struck  the  mouth 
— or  the  northernmost  mouth — of  the  Mubangi,  here  more 
properly  styled  the  Liboko  River,  l^h'is  river,  like  the  Sanga 
close  by  (further  to  the  south),  enters  the  main  Congo  in  a  kind 
of  delta,  a  confused  labyrinth  of  islands  and  sandbanks.  In  the 
delta  of  this  river  he  found  wild  coffee  growing,  and  brought 
down  seeds  which  were  subsequently  planted  at  Leopoldville. 

On  the  Lower  Mubangi  the  natives  were  acquainted  with 
the  coffee  shrub  (for  the  sweet  pulp  surrounding  its  berries)  and 
called  it  "  Musa  saku." 

After  noting  the  Mubangi  confluence  Grenfell  apparently 
visited  the  extensive  delta  of  the  Sanga  River,  where  he  also 
found  wild  coffee  g-rowinof.  His  few  notes  on  the  Sanga  are 
not  dated,  and  it  is  not  certain  that  they  apply  entirely  to  this 
first  boat  journey  when  he  was  hazy  as  to  the  separate  identity 
of  the  Sanga^  and  Mubangi. 

On  the  4th  of  March  1884  Grenfell  returned  to  Arthington 
(Stanley  Pool),  having  only  occupied  five  weeks  on  this 
adventurous  boat  journey,  which  had  at  any  rate  resulted  in 
drawing  attention  to  the  existence  of  the  greatest  tributary  the 
Congo  possesses — so  far  as  length  of  course  is  concerned.  His 
elation  at  his  discovery,  however,  was  damped  by  the  gloomy 
news  awaiting  his  return.  As  already  stated,  the  two  engineers 
who  had  come  out  to  build  the  Peace,  together  with  a  mission- 
ary colleague.  Hartley,  were  all  dead. 

^  The  Sanga  River  politically  is  one  of  the  most  important  affluents  of  the  Congo. 
It  is  navigable  from  its  junction  with  the  main  Congo  as  far  north  as  the  fourth 
degree  of  N.  latitude,  or,  in  other  words,  the  hinterland  of  the  Cameroons  and  the 
south-east  of  Adamawa.  The  river  was  reported  in  1885  by  the  brothers  Jean  and 
Savorgnan  de  Brazza,  and  was  actually  discovered  and  mapped  b)'  Cholet  and 
Fourneau  in  1890-91  :  by  Mizon,  S.  de  Brazza,  Clozel,  and  others,  between  1892  and 
1895.  It  W'ls  also  reached  by  various  German  explorers  from  the  Cameroons.  When 
the  German  Government  concluded  its  frontier  arrangement  with  France  in  1894  it 
arranged  to  bring  the  frontier  of  the  Cameroons  colony  to  the  Ngoko  affluent  of  the 
Sanga  (which  rises  within  three  hundred  miles  of  the  Cameroons  coast)  and  also  to 
the  main  stream  of  the  Sanga.  Thus  Germany  has  a  corner  of  the  Congo  basin, 
and  can  claim  the  right  to  navigate  the  Congo  and  its  affluents. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MUBANGI 

ON  the  /  th  of  July  1884  the  Peace  had  been  put  together, 
and  Grenfell  started  with  Comber  on  a  five  weeks' 
prospecting  tour  in  the  new  steamer.  In  two  days  from 
Arthington  they  reached  the  vicinity  of  Mswata,  and  in  another 
day  had  anchored  opposite  the  new  international  station  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Kwa.  This  river  seemed  in  those  clays  the  most 
significant  of  the  Congo's  tributaries,  though  its  full  importance 
was  not  realized  even  then.  Politically,  it  has  lost  place  in 
favour  of  the  Mubangi,  which  is  far  more  likely  to  prove  in  the 
future  as  well  as  in  the  present  an  important  line  of  political  and 
ethnographical  definition. 

AlthouQrh  the  Kwa  where  it  enters  the  main  Cono-o  is  of  dis- 
...  .    .  ^ 

appointing  width,  it  is  of  astonishing  depth  and  volume — scarcely 

less  in  these  respects  than  the  Congo  itself  Grenfell  and 
Comber  therefore  resolved  to  see  if  they  could  not  arrive  at 
more  important  results  than  Stanley  had  done  a  few  months 
previously  when  he  had  explored  the  Kwa  as  far  as  the  conflu- 
ence of  the  Kwango-Kasai  and  the  Mfini,  but  had  unaccountably 
decided  that  the  Mfini  was  the  main  stream  and  had  followed 
this  up  till  he  entered  Lake  Leopold  11.^  Grenfell  writes  on 
the  24th  of  August  1884  : — 

"  The  Kwa  for  the  first  thirty  miles  has  a  mean  course  of  N.E. 
between  steep  grass  and  scrub-covered  hills  of  from  200  to  500  feet 

^  Stanley  on  his  original  journey  in  1877  discovered  the  confluence  of  the  Kwa 
with  the  Congo,  and  jumped  to  the  conclusion — quite  rightly — that  it  was  the  outlet  of 
the  Kwango,  but  it  never  occurred  to  him  to  suppose  that  this  narrow-mouthed  tribu- 
tary could  likewise  be  the  outlet  of  the  mighty  River  Kasai,  a  river  which  had  been 
discovered  by  Portuguese  explorers  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  but  redis- 
covered and  announced  by  Livingstone,  and  crossed  in  its  upper  waters  by  Cameron 
and  Pogge  prior  to  1876.  Stanley  imagined  that  the  Kasai  found  its  outlet  into  the 
Congo  through  the  much  less  important  Busira-Juapa  stream  at  Equator  Station.  He 
named  this  the  Buruki  or  Muhindu,  and  attributed  to  it  a  greater  breadth  than  it 
possessed.  The  Kwa  he  styled  the  Ibari-Nkutu,  but  afterwards  adopted  the  name 
Bochini,  which  was  introduced  by  Comber.  The  best  term  for  the  joint  outlet  of  the 
Kwango-Kwilu-Mfini-Lukenye-Kasai-Lulua-Sankuru  would  seem  to  be  the  simple 
native  name  of  Kwa. 

108 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MUBANGI  109 


liigh,  with  narrow  fringes  of  timber  at  the  water's  edge  and  in  the  valleys. 
Along  this  reach  of  the  river,  which  has  a  width  varying  from  a  quarter 
to  three-quarters  of  a  mile,  navigation  involves  great  care,  by  reason  of 
the  many  rocky  reefs  which  stretch  out  into  nearly  mid-stream.  .  .  . 
Where  the  course  changes  near  the  friendly  town  of  Bo,  the  river  takes 
upon  itself  the  character  of  the  higher  reaches  of  the  Congo,  widening 
out  among  sandbanks  and  islands  into  lake-like  expansions  of  from 
two  to  five  miles  wide  and  five  to  fifteen  miles  long.  .  .  .  On  its 
banks  are  wild  vines  with  edible  fruit,  African  nutmegs,  cotton,  orange 
trees,  cucumbers,  and  jatropha." 

Some  fifty  miles  from  Kwamouth  they  reached  the  country 
of  the  Babuma,  the  natives  and  dialect  of  which  were  first 
described  by  the  writer  of  this  book,  who  saw  specimens  of  the 
Babuma  on  the  Congo  near  the  mouth  of  the  Kwa  in  1883. 
They  were  a  friendly  people — in  those  days — towards  white 
men,  and  were  most  of  them  grouped  under  the  rule  of  a 
powerful  chieftainess,  Nga-Nkabi. 

Havino- investio-ated  the  confluence  of  the  Kwangro  with  the 
main  Kasai  (though  they  did  not  guess  at  the  identity  of  the 
latter  river  then),  they  thus  carried  Congo  exploration  a  little  in 
advance  of  Stanley,  who  hitherto  had  only  revealed  the  exist- 
ence of  the  Mfini  and  of  Lake  Leopold  II.  They  then  returned 
to  the  main  Congo  and  resumed  their  ascent  of  that  river.  Past 
the  well-known  native  settlement  of  Chumbiri  or  Tsumbidi  they 
noticed  a  remarkably  stony  hill,  one  of  a  series  stretching  north- 
wards on  either  side  of  the  main  Congo,  from  two  hundred  to 
seven  hundred  feet  high,  mostly  on  the  northern  or  western 
bank — hills  differing  from  the  smoothly  rounded,  sandy  hum- 
mocks further  to  the  west.^ 

Above  Chumbiri's  they  came  in  sight  of  "  Lone  Island," 
which  though  apparently  standing  all  by  itself  was  found  by 
them  to  be  "only  the  first  of  the  countless  islands  which  are 
an  ever-present  feature  of  the  river  from  this  point  to  Stanley 
Falls." 

Hereabout,  too,  they  exchanged  the  deep  water  and  the 
dangerous  reefs  and  rocks  for  shallows  and  sandbanks  so 
numerous  and  channels  so  intricate  that  they  often  lost  sight  of 
the  mainland  and  had  to  rely  on  their  compass  for  the  course. 

^  These  stony  hills  would  seem  to  be  the  vestiges  of  the  ancient  plateau  not 
completely  worn  away  or  silted  over  by  the  waters  of  the  vast  Congo  basin  ;  which  at 
one  time  filled  up  the  central  depression  of  the  southern  half  of  Africa  with  a  fresh- 
water lake  vaster  probably  than  any  other  the  world  has  known,  a  lake  at  least  six 
times  the  size  of  the  present  Victoria  Nyanza,  of  which  the  only  remains  are  the 
broad  course  of  the  Upper  Congo,  lakes  Ntomba  and  Leopold,  and  a  lake  or  swamp 
at  the  head  of  the  scarcely  explored  Lukenye  River. 


no   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


"The  current  certainly  tells  us^  whether  we  are  going  up  or  down, 
but  when  the  channel  is  two  miles  wide,  to  go  up  or  down  is  not  always 
sufificient.  It  is  important  to  steer  a  straight  course  and  hit  the  right 
bank,  and  not  to  wander  about  in  a  maze  at  haphazard,  and  find  one- 
self in  the  wrong  channel.  After  thirty  miles  or  so  among  these 
islands  and  sandbanks,  the  hills  once  more  approach  the  river,  and  on 
the  slope  of  these  hills  on  the  eastern  bank,  ranging  for  about  a  couple 

of  miles,  we  find 
the  Bolobo  towns, 
of  which  Ibaka 
is  the  supreme 
chief  .  .  . 

"  In  Bolobo,  as 
in  Chumbiri,  the 
inhabitants  are 
Bayanzi,  or  as 
they  call  them- 
selves, the  Boban- 
gi  people.  In  ad- 
jacent Moye  we 
find  Banunu  peo- 
ple, the  Banunu 
being  probably 
the  indigenous 
race.  Inland  are 
said  to  be  the 
Batende.  Bolobo 
has  about  two 
miles  of  villages 
composing  its 
town.  Moye  is 
rather  bigger  than 
Bolobo,  and  its 
villages,  each  un- 
der its  separate 
chieftain,  extend 
further  back  from 
the  river,  and 
higher  up  the 
sides  of  the  loo- 
feet    hill  which 

backs  them.  Between  Bolobo  and  l\Io\-e  there  is  frequently  enmity, 
and  one  can  generally  reckon  too  on  internal  dissensions  in  each 
district,  one  chief  of  Bolobo  frequently  not  being  on  speaking  terms 
with  his  fellow-chief  Although  Ibaka  is  the  special,  and  perhaps 
biggest  chief  of  Bolobo  (being  the  white  man's  chief  or 
not  by  any  means  the  only  one.  There  are  in  all  eighty 
chief  characteristics  of  Bolobo  people  appear  to  be 
immorality,  and  cruelty,  out  of  each  of  which 

1  The  passages  that  follow  are  from  a  report  jointly  written  by  Grenfell  and 
Comber  in  the  archives  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society. 


44- 


THE  "LONE  ISLAND'   WHERE  THE  CONGO  KROADEX.- 
NEAR  CHUMBIRI  :  SKETCHED  BY  THE  AUTHOR 


friend),  he  is 
chiefs !  The 
drunkenness, 
vices  spring  actions 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MUBANGI  iii 


almost  too  fearful  to  describe.  In  hearing  of  these,  one  living  out  here 
almost  gets  to  feel  like  calling  the  people  terrible  brutes  and  wretches, 
rather  than  poor  miserable  heathen.  The  light  of  their  consciences 
must  condemn  them  in  most  of  their  sins. 

"  On  the  afternoon  of  our  arrival,  accompanied  by  Lieut.  Liebrechts,^ 
of  the  Association  Internationale,  we  walked  through  all  the  towns  of 
Bolobo  and  Moye.  In  Bolobo  it  was  a  great  day,  a  gala  day  indeed. 
The  wife  of  one  of  the  chiefs  had  died  somewhere  away,  and,  of  course, 
there  must  be  four  or  five  days  and  nights  of  orgies — any  amount  of 
dirty  sugar-cane-beer  swilling,  unbridled  licence  in  every  species  of 
sensuality,  and  a  grand  finale  of  four  human  sacrifices,  each  victim 
being  a  poor  wretch  of  a  slave  bought  for  the  purpose !  Drums  beat- 
ing briskly,  circles  of  'fine'  women,  wearing  the  heavy  brass  collar 
(25  to  30  lb.),  dancing  and  clapping  rhythmically,  and  plenty  of  people 
in  all  the  streets.  The  victims  were  tied  up  somewhere  ;  of  course, 
they  would  not  tell  us  where ;  they  were  said  to  be  apathetically  and 
stolidly  awaiting  their  fate — bowstring  or  knife — both  being  Bobangi 
ways  of  killing.  Remonstrances  and  pleadings  on  behalf  of  these  poor 
victims  were  all  in  vain. 

"  Naturally,  in  walking  through  these  towns,  we  tried  to  make 
friends  with  the  people  as  much  as  possible.  We  know  scarcely  any  of 
their  language,  and  can  do  very  little  with  them  on  these  first  short 
prospecting  visits.  .  .  . 

"  From  Bolobo  we  steamed  on  past  some  very  pretty  hill  scenery, 
passing  Moye  Nkunju  and  Sakamimbe,  charmingly  situated  on  spurs 
of  rocky,  tree-clad  hills,  and  prettily  embowered  in  trees.  These 
people  seem  to  have  picked  all  the  best  sites.  For  the  whole  of  the 
distance,  100  miles,  we  saw  absolutely  nothing  of  the  opposite  bank 
of  the  great  river  we  were  ascending ;  but,  keeping  somewhere 
near  the  eastern  shore,  and  a  general  north-east  direction,  we  passed 
among  the  islands  in  channels  of  from  150  to  1,500  yards  wide,  water 
generally  shallow.  Towns  very  few.  As  we  approached  Lukolela  on 
the  third  day,  we  found  the  current  much  stronger  ;  and  at  last,  the  first 
time  for  120  miles,  we  saw  the  opposite  shore.  Just  above  Lukolela 
the  river  narrows  from  its  hitherto  unknown  width,  to  a  mile  and 
a  half. 

"  Lukolela  was  fixed  upon  as  the  site  for  our  first  new  mission 
station.  The  whole  of  Lukolela  and  its  vicinity  is  the  densest  forest. 
From  the  water's  edge  the  ground  gently  slopes  to  a  height  of  about 
sixty  feet.  Giants  of  trees  abound — cotton  trees,  African  teak,  etc. — 
with  a  girth  that  takes  the  edge  off  your  axe  almost  at  sight  of  it.  .  .  . 

"  The  villages  of  Lukolela  are  smaller  and  somewhat  more 
scattered  than  those  of  Bolobo  and  other  Bobangi  towns,  although 
Lukolela  people  too  belong  to  the  same  enterprising  tribe.  .  .  . 

"Leaving  Lukolela  on  July  23  (1884),  we  slept  just  below  Ngombe, 
which  we  reached  early  the  following  morning.  Here  the  river  narrows 
again,  having  expanded,  as  usual,  below  the  two  places.  Opposite 
Ngombe,  a  little  above,  is  the  Mubangi  River,  evidently  a  considerable 
body  of  water,  of  a  light  cafc-au-lait  colour  ;  contrasting  strongly,  and 
for  many  miles  refusing  to  mix  with  the  dark  brown  water  of  the  main 

'  Now  Secretary  of  the  Interior  in  the  Congo  State  Government.  (H.  H.  J.) 


112   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


river.  The  two  bodies  of  water  flow  side  by  side,  always  with  a  great 
deal  of  commotion  and  splashing  waves  at  their  edges  of  contact,  as  if 
jostling  each  other  on  their  way  down.^  The  same  is  very  noticeable, 
too,  at  the  Lulongo  River  much  higher  up,  the  water  of  which,  flowing 
alongside  that  of  the  big  river,  is  inky  black. 

"  About  twelve  miles  further  on  we  came  to  a  splendid  set  of  towns, 
viz.  Butunu,  Boshende,  and  Ilebo.  In  these  settlements,  especially  the 
last  two,  which  are  separated  from  each  other  by  about  a  mile  of  bush, 
we  have  probably  the  densest  population  yet  seen  by  us  on  the  Congo, 
not  excluding  Bangala  towns.  The  people  literally  swarmed,  the  crowd 
coming  to  one  point  of  beach  numbering  about  five  hundred  people. 
Here,  as  at  Ngombe,  and  at  most  towns  as  far  as  Liboko,  there  are 


45.  FIRST  BAPTIST  MISSION-HOUSE  AT  LUKOLELA 


isolated  stretches  of  rocky  banks  where  the  overlying  soil  seems  par- 
ticularly fertile,  and  where  the  people  have  built.  Sometimes  this  rocky 
bank,  washed  by  the  current,  assumes  the  form  of  a  squared  and  arti- 
ficially constructed  quay  for  distances  of  twenty  to  fifty  yards.  The 
towns,  especially  the  Ilebo  ones,  go  back  extensively,  away  from  the 
river,  an  unusual  thing,  as  if  the  suitable  building  land  along  the  river 
front  was  not  sufficient  for  the  people.  .  .  . 

"  At  Ilebo  we  slept,  after  going  on  shore  to  make  friends 
with  the  people.  .  .  .  Walking  about  the  towns,  we  found  each 
chief  sitting  on  his  stool  outside  his  house,  ready  to  giv-e  us  a 
welcoming  shake  of  the  hands.  .  .  .  Mayongo,  chief  of  Boshende, 

^  Grenfell  noted  on  this  journey  that  the  colour  of  the  Mubangi  was  Hght  brick- 
red  or  pinkish  ochre,  and  that  its  islands  and  shores  were  heavily  timbered.  Vide 
note  on  p.  116. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MUBANGI  113 


and  Ipaka  of  Ilebo,  as  well  as  almost  every  friendly-disposed  man 
of  importance,  from  Chumbiri  up  to  Liboko,  were  very  desirous  to 
seal  friendship  by  the 
ceremony  of  blood  - 
brotherhood,  which, 
among  the  Ilebo,  Bo- 
bangi,  and  Bangala 
people,  is  very  com- 
mon ;  but  the  rite  is 
so  meaningless  and 
empty,  and  appears  to 
have  no  binding  force, 
that  up  to  the  present 
we  have  always  re- 
fused to  drink  blood 
with  anyone ;  and  our 
arms,  unlike  those  of  a 
few  upper-river  travel- 
lers, and  notably  the 
arms  of  all  Ilebo  and 
Bangala  chiefs,  are  not 
covered  with  a  lot  of 
marks,  the  scars  of 
blood-brotherhood.  .  .  . 

"  The  Congo  equa- 
torial towns  are  divided 
up  into  districts  as  fol- 
lows :  Bujungi,  Mbon- 
go,  Inganda,  and 
Bvvangata.^  ...  At 
M  bongo  the  people 
seemed  very  rudely 
bold  and  troublesome 
.  .  .  almost  as  though 
they  wanted  to  fight  us 
because  we  would  not 
stop  and  go  ashore  at 
their  rocky  beaches. 
Inganda  was  especially 
interesting  to  us,  be- 
cause our  Livingstone 
Inland  Mission  breth- 
ren are  going  to  build 
there.  These  people 
about  the  great  Ruki 
River    are    the    niost  ^5  ^.^pulula,  a  pilot  on  the  mission  steamer  "peace" 

primitive     we     have  (A  Mongata  man  recruited  after  Grenfell's  first  voyage.) 

hitherto   met.  They 

are  the  only  people  we  saw  who  use  the  bow  and  arrow.    Here  too  we 

'  Many  Bangata  or  Wangata  men  subsequentl)'  entered  the  bervice  of  the 
Mission. 


I. — I 


114  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


first  saw  an  African  shield,  and  found  most  men  walking  about  with  bows 
and  arrows  and  shields,  or  spears  and  shield,  or  else  a  murderous  knife. 

"  That  they  are  cruel,  curiously  and  ingeniously  cruel,  we  know 
from  the  description  given  by  Lieut.  Vangele,  the  chief  of  Equatorville 
Station,  of  the  methods  of  execution  obtaining  amongst  them.  Certain 
victims  die  by  the  knife,  and  others  have  to  afford  to  the  bloodthirsty 
spectators  the  pleasures  of  the  chase.  These  last  are  given  a  certain 
start  across  country,  and  then  are  pursued  in  full  cry  by  all  the  people 
armed  with  spears  and  bows  and  arrows.  An  obstinate  victim  who  will 
not  run  well  causes  disappointment,  but  others  are  said  to  make  a  '  fine 
run '  before  they  fall,  pierced  with  arrows  and  spears.  .  .  . 

"  The  Ruki  River  we  found  to  be  just  the  magnificent  affluent 
Stanley  has  described  it,  quite  i,ooo  yards  wide,  and  with  several 
islands  at  its  embouchure.  Up  above  the  Ruki  confluence  we  saw 
Bangala  towns,  stretching  right  away  to  i°  50'  N.  (our  farthest  point)  to 
Liboko,  where  Stanley  had  his  great  battle  in  1877.  We  went,  however, 
about  forty-five  miles  above  Equatorville  before  we  arrived  at  Lulanga, 
the  first  Bangala  town  on  the  eastern  bank.  After  leaving  the  Ruki 
River,  until  we  arrived  at  Lulanga,  we  really  saw  no  point  on  the 
eastern  shore  where  a  town  could  be  built :  all  was  so  low  and  muddy. 

"  At  Lulanga  we  had  our  first  real  introduction  to  Bangala  people, 
and  we  found  them  out  and  out  the  most  boisterous,  wild,  noisy, 
troublesome,  worrying  lot  of  people  either  of  us  has  ever  met.  We  were 
introduced  by  our  friend  Mangaba,  of  Lukolela,  who  all  the  journey  had 
made  himself  very  interesting  to  us.  Like  all  the  Bobangi  people, 
Mangaba  was  very  superstitious,  and  carried  his  fetishes  with  him  on 
board.  His  toilet  was  never  complete  without  the  application  of  his 
face  powder  and  rouge — not  used,  however,  to  improve  the  complexion, 
but  to  make  mysterious  red  and  white  (pipeclay)  marks  about  his 
body,  in  which  his  boy  assisted  him.  A  white  line  up  his  back,  from 
hip  to  left  shoulder,  to  the  left  of  the  median  line,  was  carried  thence 
along  the  outer  part  of  the  arm  down  to  the  hand.  Red  and  white 
lines  are  drawn  on  the  left  foot,  ditto  across  the  forehead,  but  all  drawn 
with  the  most  religious  care. 

"  To  converse  with  these  people  was  very  difficult,  but  we  sometimes 
tried  it  when  in  the  evening  we  had  prayer  and  gathered  round  us  our 
boys  to  sing  our  Congo  hymn.  '  God  hears  us  when  we  speak  to  Him,' 
we  said  to  Mangaba.  '  Indeed  ! '  said  he,  not  much  surprised.  '  Yes, 
He  is  our  Father,  and  He  is  very  good,  and  loves  us  all  very  much,' 
said  we.  But  to  this  Mangaba  objected.  '  God  was  not  very  good. 
Why  was  He  always  killing  people  (by  death)  ? '  And  then  we  had  to 
try  and  explain  the  resurrection  and  the  home  in  heaven  ;  but  it  was 
difficult  to  remove  his  sceptical  objections. 

"We  found  just  above  Lulanga  a  considerable  river.  It  is  called  the 
Lulongo  River,  and  is  about  600  yards  wide,  the  water  being  inky 
black.  .  .  . 

"  Mangaba  informed  us  that  Bangala  was  divided  into  five  districts  : 
Lulanga  and  Bolombo  on  the  left,  and  Mungundu,  Bukolela,  and  Liboko 
on  the  right  bank. 

"  About  twelve  miles  above  the  Lulongo  River  we  crossed  over  to 
the  other  side  of  the  river,  thus  obtaining  an  idea  of  its  width  in  this 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MUBANGI  115 


place,  although  we  crossed  very  obliquely.  We  passed  three  Bukolela 
towns — Lobengo,  Monsombe,  and  Bobimba,  each  one  built  on  one  of 
the  few  raised  plots  here  and  there  obtaining  on  the  banks.  These 
banks  were  of  clay,  and  from  four  to  six  feet  above  the  water.  Along 
the  beach  were  broad  double  ladders,  a  sort  of  landing-steps  reaching 
down  into  the  river.  The  people  here  seemed  quieter  and  milder,  and 
quite  ready  to  welcome  us. 

"  At  last,  on  August  i,  we  reached  Liboko,  and  after  steaming  along 
seven  miles  of  towns,  more  or  less  close  to  each  other,  we  came  to  that 
of  the  great  chief  Mata-mayiki  (i.e.  plenty  of  guns),  where  the  Inter- 
national Association  has  built  a  fine  house. 

"  At  Liboko  we  were  half-way  to  Stanley  Falls.  On  setting  out 
from  Arthington  we  had  given  ourselves  five  weeks,  and,  had  this  time 
been  sufficient,  there  was  nothing  to  prevent  us  going  the  whole  distance 
of  1,000  miles.  There  was  nothing  to  obstruct;  the  road  was  open 
an4  most  inviting ;  the  Peace  working  well ;  the  only  thing  which  made 
any  lengthening  of  our  journey  impossible  was  the  fact  that  we  had 
left  Mrs.  Grenfell  alone  at  Arthington,  and  one  of  us  was  overdue  to  go 
down  to  the  coast  and  home  to  England.  Our  gang  of  Loangos  too 
were  due  to  go  home.  So  we  had,  albeit  most  reluctantly,  to  start  back." 

The  limit  of  Grenfell's  first  exploration  of  the  Congo  by 
steamer  was  at  Liboko,  which  would  be  equivalent  at  the 
present  day  to  the  Belgian  station  at  Bangala.  They  had 
entered  the  territory  of  the  important  Bangala  tribe, ^  which 
differs  slightly  from  the  Babangi  of  the  lower  Mubangi  and  of 
the  banks  of  the  western  Congo  as  far  as  Bolobo.  Thence 
they  returned  to  Stanley  Pool,  which  they  reached  at  the 
beginning  of  September. 

On  the  13th  of  October  of  the  same  year — 1884 — Grenfell 
started  on  his  second  journey  of  exploration  in  the  Peace?  In 
commencing  his  account  of  this,  he  notes  a  remarkable  incident 
in  which  a  native  fireman  (probably  from  the  Luango  coast) 
was  rescued  from  a  crocodile.  The  fireman  together  with  other 
men  was  enjoying  a  swim  in  the  Congo  after  a  day's  hard 
work.  Just  as  he  was  about  to  enter  the  small  boat  from  which 
they  had  dived  he  called  out,  "  Help  me  :  a  crocodile  has  got 
my  hand!"  His  other  arm  was  firmly  seized  by  his  com- 
panions, who  were  very  nearly  dragged  out  of  the  boat  by  the 
crocodile,  while  the  unfortunate  fireman  was  completely  im- 
mersed.   A  tug-of-war  which  lasted  fully  five  minutes  ensued 

1  The  Bangala  people  were  popular  from  the  first  with  all  Europeans  in  spite  of 
occasional  outbreaks  of  hostility.  They  are  a  splendid-looking  race,  sometimes  with 
really  handsome  faces,  and  almost  always  with  bodies  that  are  ideals  of  manly  beauty, 
the  women  also  being  attractive  and  well  shaped.  In  the  'eighties  of  the  last  century 
their  labour  was  cheaper  than  that  of  any  other  race  on  the  Congo,  the  wages  asked 
being  not  more  than  £i  a  year  ! 

^  His  third  journey  up  the  Congo  beyond  Stanley  Pool,  the  first  having  been 
performed  in  a  whale-boat. 


ii6  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


before  the  crocodile  gave  up  in  disgust.  The  fireman  was 
rescued  from  a  horrible  death  with  no  worse  injuries  than  a 
lacerated  hand  and  slight  wounds  on  the  face  and  leo-  from 
which  he  soon  recovered.^ 

On  this  second  voyage  of  the  Peace  Grenfell  was  accom- 
panied by  his  wife  and  eldest  child  and  by  Dr.  Sims  of 
the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union  ;  also  by  six  of  the 
mission-school  boys.  The  expedition  examined  the  lower 
course  of  the  Lefini  or  Lifini.  [Grenfell  describes  the  colour 
of  the  Lefini  water  as  slaty-blue.]  They  then  continued  the 
ascent  of  the  Congo  past  Bolobo  to  the  Nkenye  River,  which 
they  explored  for  five  days.  The  natives,  however,  were 
hostile,  and  Dr.  Sims  narrowly  escaped  being  killed  by  them, 
so  that  after  ascending  the  Nkenye  for  seventy  miles  (again 
noting  the  number  and  boldness  of  the  crocodiles)  they  returned 
to  the  main  Cong-o. 

Apparently  on  this  tour  of  exploration  the  Alima  or  "  Mai 
ma  Mbosi "  was  visited.  This  river  has  played  some  part  in 
Congo  history  since  the  discovery  of  its  upper  waters  by  L.  S. 
de  Brazza  in  1878  turned  his  attention  to  his  Congo  "pounce" 
in  1880.  In  its  upper  waters  it  is  called  Leketi,  in  its  lower 
course  Mbosi ;  and  here,  according  to  Grenfell,  its  current  flows 
at  the  rate  of  250  feet  a  minute.  In  the  Bokangani  country, 
through  which  the  Mai  ma  Mbosi  or  lower  Alima  flows,  there 
is  a  mixture  of  the  Babangi  and  Bateke  people  and  a  corres- 
ponding mixture  of  dialects.  This  land  is  remarkable  (writes 
Grenfell)  for  its  enormous  quantities  of  Raphia  palms,  called 
locally  Mbadi  or  Lofandi.  Their  fir-cone-like  fruits  have  an 
oil  that  is  present  in  the  outer  husk,  an  oil  in  which  the  Bokan- 
gani people  trade.    The  inner  nut  is  burnt  for  salt. 

On  his  two  previous  journeys  it  is  clear  that  Grenfell  had 
not  attached  overmuch  importance  to  his  discovery  of  the 
Mubangi  mouth, ^  for  in  October  1884  he  writes  that  he  had 

'  In  those  days,  and  at  the  time  when  the  present  writer  was  on  the  Congo,  the 
crocodiles  were  exceedingly  bold  in  their  attacks  on  Europeans  and  natives,  not 
having  sufficiently  realized  the  effect  of  firearms.  The  present  writer  has  endured  an 
occasional  half-hour  of  disagreeable  suspense  whilst  his  frail  canoe,  paddled  by  two 
anxious  men,  has  been  followed  by  a  huge  crocodile,  which  seemed  at  intervals  to  be 
preparing  to  jump  out  of  the  water  and  on  to  the  canoe.  But  for  the  rate  at  which 
the  canoe  travelled  it  would  probably  have  effected  its  purpose. 

^  Of  late  the  priority  of  discovery  of  the  Mubangi  by  Grenfell  has  been  disputed 
by  certain  Belgian  writers  in  favour  of  Capt.  Haussens,  who  with  one  or  more  Belgian 
companions  certainly  entered  the  Mubangi  delta  on  April  20th  1884.  But  these 
writers  forget  that  Grenfell  had  preceded  Haussens  (alone,  in  his  own  mission  boat : 
vide  p.  107)  on  or  about  F"ebruary  20th  in  that  year,  tirenfell  thought  he  had  dis- 
covered a  great  branch  of  the  main  Congo,  though  by  July  1884  he  realized  it  was 
an  independent  river.  He  was  unquestionably  the  first  to  prove  the  independent 
status  of  the  Mubangi  by  his  journey  up  it  in  October  1884. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MUBANGI  117 


originally  thought  the  phrase  "  Mai  ma  Bobangi "  was  just 
the  name  given  to  a  separate  branch  of  the  main  Congo. 
"It  was  not  until  we  had  journeyed  nearly  130  miles  up  the 
Mubangi  that  we  made  sure  of  its  independence."  Before 
they  had  gone  very  far  on  this  remarkable  journey  of  discovery 
they  found  themselves  amongst  natives  who  were  really  startled 
at  the  sight  of  a  white  man,  and  who  greeted  the  expedition 
with  cries  of    Bidimo  !  bidimo  ("Spirits"). 

On  board  the  Peace  was  a  Mubangi  native  from  the  banks 
of  the  Congo,  who  attempted  to  appease  the  fears  of  his 
countrymen.  But  the  distrust  of  the  natives  was  invincible, 
and  Grenfell's  expedition  was  forced  by  failure  of  food  supplies 
to  return,  after  having  travelled  up  the  river  about  130  miles, 
without,  however,  being  able  to  do  much  surveying.  The 
warriors  on  the  banks,  he  noticed,  when  preparing  to  fight 
donned  sleeveless  jackets  of  elephant  or  buffalo  hide.  They 
used  long,  narrow  shields,  and  fought  with  bundles  of  spears. 

While  anchoring  at  night  on  the  Mubangi,  the  Peace  was 
nearly  swept  off  downstream  by  a  huge  floating  island  of 
vegetation  coming-  athwart  her  bows  and  causing-  her  to  drag^ 
her  anchors.  Grenfell  feared  that  his  little  steamer  might  in 
this  way  be  forced  under  overhanging  trees,  or  across  some 
great  snag  :  even  with  steam  full  up  in  the  opposite  direction 
to  the  current  he  could  not  prevent  her  being  carried  along  by 
this  floatingf  mass  of  vegetation.  At  last  the  crew,  standing-  on 
the  island  with  hatchets  and  hand-saws,  detached  the  tough  roots 
of  the  floating  vegetation  from  the  bow  of  the  Peace,  and  thus  the 
steamer  after  being  dragged  for  two  miles  got  free  and  steamed 
back  to  the  main  Congo,  her  crew  eager  for  supplies  of  food. 

The  next  item  of  discovery  on  the  eastward,  outgoing- 
voyage  of  October-March  1884-5,  ^^'^  the  Ruki  or  Black 
River,  which  is  nearly  joined  at  its  confluence  with  the  Congo 
by  the  Ikelemba.^  This  was  Stanley's  Buruki  or  Muhindu,  the 
stream  which  he  thought  was  the  ultimate  outlet  of  the  Kasai. 
Grenfell  discovered  it  to  be  formed  by  the  juncture  of  two 
important  streams,  the  Juapa  and  Busira,  but  his  explorations 
in  this  direction  were  postponed  to  a  more  convenient  oppor- 
tunity, and  he  confined  himself  on  this  trip  to  the  ascent  of  the 
Ikelemba,  a  much  smaller  river,  but  one  which  taps — or  tapped 
— a  district  of  metal-workers  who  sent  down  large  supplies  of 
knives  and  spears  for  sale  on  the  Congo. 

Returning  to  the  main  Congo,  they  coasted  along  the 

'  "  Up  the  Ruki  there  are  many  pahris.  A  conglomerate  formation.  The  towns 
are  built  on  lofty  points." 


ii8   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


"  Ngombe  district"  (which  would  seem  to  be  the  country  be- 
tween the  Ruki  River  on  the  south  and  the  Lulano-a  River 
on  the  north),  and  here  entered  a  town  called  Danda,  not  far 
from  the  Ikelemba,  which  Grenfell  describes  as  follows  : — 

"  It  was  quite  different  from  anything  we  had  previous!}'  seen,  being 
entirely  surrounded  by  a  ditch,  twelve  feet  wide  and  six  deep,  and  on 
the  inner  side  of  this  ditch  by  a  tall  barricade  of  split  logs  twelve  feet 
high.  There  were  three  entrances  into  the  town,  each  approached  by  a 
single  log  bridge ;  the  narrow  breaks  in  the  barricade  were  provided 
with  slabs  of  wood  in  readiness  to  close  them  should  the  need  arise. 
Dr.  Sims  and  Eyambi  were  the  first  to  enter  this  town,  and  the  people 
were  so  much  startled  by  the  white  man's  advent  that  one  of  them 
jumped  up  and  let  fly  an  arrow  at  the  unannounced  visitors,  very 
narrowl)'  missing  the  doctor,  and  going  through  Eyambi's  cloth.  The 
people  scarcely  appeared  to  understand  why  we  did  not  declare  war  at 
once,  and  regarded  our  attempts  at  friendly  intercourse  with  such 
evident  suspicion  that  neither  party  were  much  at  ease  till  each  was 
further  apart. 

"  These  people  ornament  themselves  in  a  frightful  way,  by  making 
raised  cicatrices  on  their  faces,  covering  them  entirely,  in  some  cases 
even  the  lips,  with  lumps  as  big  as  peas.  Sometimes  a  man  will  have 
a  row  all  down  his  nose  as  close  as  they  can  stick,  others  will  be  con- 
tent with  three  or  four,  while  others  again  will  have  a  big  one  just  on 
the  lip,  suggestive  of  a  budding  rhinoceros  horn.  Some  have  rows  of 
these  '  blebs '  all  round  the  eyes  and  along  the  cheeks,  till  they  meet  at 
the  chin,  resulting  in  a  horrid  similarity  to  the  outline  of  a  'death's 
head.'  One  girl  whom  we  saw  had  a  lump  as  large  as  a  pigeon's  egg 
on  each  side  of  her  nose,  and  so  close  to  her  eyes  that  they  must  have 
been  a  great  trouble,  for  when  she  wished  to  look  at  anyone,  she  had 
to  bow  her  head  and  look  over  these  '  beauty  marks.'" 

After  this  investigation  of  the  Ikelemba  (which  he  noted 
was  a  hundred  yards  wide  at  its  mouth)  Grenfell  ascended  the 
main  Congo  (along  the  western  bank)  to  the  Bosungu  creek. 
This  stream,  as  well  as  one  or  two  further  south  and  north,  he 
takes  to  be  only  canals  connecting  the  main  Congo  with  the 
lower  Mubangi  at  flood  time ;  but  subsequent  explorations 
have  shown  that  if  this  water  connection  takes  place  it  is  with 
the  Noiri  affluents  of  the  Mubans^i. 

Near  the  Bosungu  creek  Grenfell  stopped  at  the  large 
native  town  of  Lobeno-o  on  the  west  bank.  He  describes  the 
chief's  "  palace  "  or  ngiiniba  house  (what  elsewhere  in  Africa  we 
should  style  the  guest  house,  the  place  of  assemblage  in  the 
middle  of  the  village)  as  little  else  than  a  large  roof,  sixty  or 
seventy  feet  long  by  twenty  to  twenty-five  feet  wide,  supported 
on  posts,  and  without  any  wall,  the  "king-posts"  being  finely 
wrought  by  a  species  of  carving  which  added  greatly  to  their 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MUBANGI 


121 


appearance,  and  evidences  both  considerable  skill  and  patience. 
These  ngumba  houses  of  the  Upper  Congo  are  like  the  baraza 
of  East  Africa,  generally  the  place  where  the  head-men  of  the 
village  meet  to  eat,  or  to  discuss  matters,  or  where  a  chief 
entertains  his  guests.  Palavers  are  talked  here,  and  pipes  are 
smoked. 

"  From  the  roof,"  writes  Grenfell,  "  hung  a  very  miscellaneous 
collection  of  African  fishing-nets  of  all  kinds,  with  meshes  from  the 
size  of  a  finger  to  a  span  long,  for  catching  everything  from  little  fish 
in  the  water  to  large  deer  on  land  ;  also  rat  traps  built  after  the 
manner  of  the  toy  known  as  the  Siamese  link,  into  which  if  a  rat  once 
enters,  the  more  he  struggles,  the  tighter  he  is  held  ;  there  were  also 
pipes,  both  long  and  short,  stuck  into  the  thatch  or  the  framework,  the 
shorter  ones  being  smoked  by  the  chief's  wives,  while  that  of  the  chief 
himself  might  have  a  stem  of  from  six  to  eight  feet  long.  Amongst 
the  other  furniture  of  this  wonderful  roof  were  spears  and  spear  rests, 
shields  and  knives,  stores  of  medicines,  and  charms,  stools,  dishes,  a 
spare  bed  or  two,  fly  whisks,  a  kind  of  backgammon  board,^  trophies  of 
the  chase,  and  many  other  things  might  be  seen  stowed  away  in  this 
capacious  roof" 

This  town  of  Lobengo  and  many  of  the  other  prosperous 
villages  and  settlements  mentioned  by  Grenfell  as  existing  in 
the  'eighties  south  of  Monsembe  have  now  disappeared,  owing 
to  unfriendly  feeling  between  the  natives  and  their  white  rulers. 

At  Monsembe,  however,  a  Baptist  mission  station  was 
subsequently  established.  Here  the  Babangi  people  were  in 
terror  of  attacks  from  the  neiohbourino-  Bano-ala.  These 
descents  of  one  tribe  on  another  in  this  region  were  made 
as  much  as  anything  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  victims 
for  cannibal  feasts.  At  the  Bangala  towns  which  Grenfell 
reached  for  the  first  time  in  November  1884  (though  he  had 
been  preceded  by  the  African  International  Association)  he 
found  himself  in  actual  contact  with  cannibals.  Slaves  were 
being  killed  and  cut  up  when  his  steamer  reached  the  principal 
Bangala  settlement.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Mongala  River, 
among  the  Babika,  he  met  with  a  friendly  reception,  but  the 
floods  were  out,  and  there  was  scarcely  a  square  yard  of  dry 
ground  in  the  whole  town.  Everything  looked  wretchedly 
swampy  and  unhealthy.  The  pathway  to  the  town  through 
the  svi^amp  was  marked  by  hideous  rows  of  skulls  on  sticks, 
and  the  chief  and  most  of  his  people  were  decorated  with 

1  The  "  bao  "  of  East-Central  Africa,  a  thick  piece  of  wood  scooped  out  into  a 
number  of  shallow  holes,  on  which  a  game  is  played  by  means  of  beans  or  pebbles. 
This  board  is  found  nearly  all  over  Negro  Africa,  being  only  wanting  amongst  the 
Bushmen,  Hottentots,  Pygmies,  Masai,  and  Nilotic  Negroes. 


122   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


necklaces  of  human  teeth.  There  was  plenty  of  wild  rice 
growing  here,  and  the  people  possessed  many  guns. 

On  December  ist  1884  he  reached  Mpesa,  near  Bomangi 
on  the  north  or  right  bank,  the  low  situation  of  which  appeared 
to  furnish  a  very  uncomfortable  sort  of  site  for  its  three  or 

four  thousand 
inhabitants. 
Three  miles 
beyond  Mpesa 
he  got  a  glimpse 
of  the  south' or 
left  bank,  which 
he  had  not  been 
able  to  see  dur- 
ing the  previous 
two  hundred 
miles.  A  few 
miles  further  on 
they  came  in 
siorht  of  a  lonor, 
strao-alinor  reef 

o  o  <_> 

of  rocks,  which 
stretched  at 
rioht  anoles  for 
a  quarter  of  a 
mile  riofht  out 
into  the  Congo 
stream.  On 
either  side  of 
this  reef  was 
Bopoto,  a  busy 
place,  at  which 
a  ofreat  deal  of 


48.    NECKLACE  OF  HUMAN  TEETH  FROM  THE 
NORTHERN  CONGO 


fororino;  work 


was  gomg  on. 
Here  axes  and 

hoes  were  made  by  the  blacksmiths  to  supply  the  needs  of 
all  the  surrounding  district.  At  this  place  Grenfell's  party 
changed  their  beads,  wire,  and  cloth  for  soft-iron  axes  of 
local  manufacture,  which  further  to  the  east  would  prove 
the  most  suitable  currency.  One  axe  was  valued  at  two 
brass  rods.  To  the  eastward  they  found  that  a  single  axe 
would  in  some  cases  buy  a  goat.  Bopoto  was  afterwards  to 
become  a  flourishing  Baptist  mission  station.    Both  here  and 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MUBANGI  123 


at  other  places  the  Baptist  missionaries  have  preserved  the 
natives  from  too  ruthless  treatment  on  the  part  of  the  whites. 
The  natives  of  Bopoto  are  an  enterprising  people,  and  in  their 
search  for  work  or  adventure  have  penetrated  as  far  eastwards 
as  the  Uganda  Protectorate,  where  the  present  writer  was  able 
to  employ  them  as  porters  in  his  caravan  a  few  years  ago,  and 
to  write  down  their  dialect.  Like  most  of  the  natives  of  the 
Upper  Congo,  they  scar  their  faces  hideously. 

In  the  Bumba  district,  at  the  confluence  of  the  River  Lubi 
or  Rubi  (a  river  first  explored  by  Grenfell,  and  called  by  him 
alternatively  the  Loika  or  Itimbiri)  the  expedition  found  it  had 
reached  a  country  of  somewhat  different  ethnographical  charac- 
ter. The  people  no  longer  filed  their  teeth  (a  characteristic  of 
most  of  the  cannibal  Bangala  tribes  of  the  Upper  Congo),  their 
hair  was  not  fancifully  dressed,  but  their  bodies  were  painted  in 
elaborate  patterns  of  red  and  black.  The  ears  were  pierced 
and  the  lobe  distended  till  it  became  rope-like.  They  called  to 
one  another  with  a  gfood  imitation  of  a  cock-crow.  Their 
houses  instead  of  being  built  of  grass  were  made  of  mud,  with 
rounded  ends  and  bark  roofs.  Here  the  great  Congo  is 
probably  at  its  broadest — opposite  Yambinga  —  unless  this 
distinction  should  be  awarded  to  the  Sanga  or  the  Mubangi 
confluence.  At  any  rate,  at  Yambinga,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Rubi,  the  Con^o  is  almost  the  averao-e  breadth  of  the  Albert 
Nyanza  or  of  the  north  end  of  Lake  Nyasa,  though  its  surface  is 
so  studded  with  islands  that  navigation  is  far  safer,  and  the  sheet 
of  water  is  not  so  imposing  in  appearance  {vide  map,  opp.  p.  290). 

The  Peace  ascended  the  Itimbiri  or  Rubi  River  (which  was 
from  150  to  300  yards  wide)  for  a  distance  of  nearly  100  miles, 
till  further  progress  was  stopped  by  falls.  The  Rubi  a  little  dis- 
tance above  these  falls  comes  from  far  away  in  the  east,  near 
the  Nepoko  and  the  Aruwimi.  Another  branch,  the  Likati, 
rises  quite  close  to  the  upper  waters  of  the  Wele-Makua,  and 
joins  the  Rubi  above  the  falls  which  mark  its  descent  from  the 
plateau  region  to  the  lake-like  basin  of  the  Congo.  On  either 
side  of  the  lower  Rubi  lofty  red  cliffs  rise  perpendicularly  from 
the  river,  often  with  fertile  plots  on  the  top.  The  Rubi  people 
descend  and  ascend  these  steep  approaches  to  the  water  by 
means  of  rough  ladders  made  of  notched  palm-trunks,  which 
can  be  hauled  up  and  down.  They  are  a  good-looking  race, 
the  boys  especially.  They  do  not  file  their  teeth,  and  wear  the 
hair  dressed  in  three  tufts.  The  ornaments  on  neck  and  arms 
are  of  copper. 

The  point  at  which  Grenfell  stopped  was  2°  50'  N.  Lat. 


124   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Up  and  down  the  Rubi  the  people  were  fairly  friendly,  though 
at  first  very  timid  ;  but  when  Grenfell  resumed  his  ascent  of 
the  main  Congo  and  reached  the  Basoko  country  at  Monungiri, 
and  from  thence  onwards  to  the  Aruwimi/  the  people  were  not 
only  most  unfriendly,  but  he  discovered  to  his  horror  that  they 
had  overwhelmed  the  small  post  of  Hausa  soldiers  placed  at 
the  Aruwimi  mouth  by  Stanley's  expedition,  and  had  eaten  two 
of  the  Hausas,  the  remaining  one  of  the  three  soldiers  having 
escaped,  as  he  was  too  thin  to  tempt  their  palates. 

The  Aruwimi  River  being  barred  by  the  cataracts  of 
Yambuya  at  no  great  distance  from  its  mouth,  and  the  people 
on  its  banks  proving  so  unfriendly,  Grenfell  made  no  attempt 
to  explore  it.  Moreover,  he  was  soon  conscious  that  he  was 
approaching  trouble.  He  had  seen  the  Basoko  still  in  their 
primitive  condition,  much  as  they  were  when  Stanley's  expedi- 
tion descended  the  river  in  1877  and  fought  one  of  its  most 
desperate  battles  for  existence  with  this  fierce  cannibal  tribe  of 
the  Aruwimi.  In  fact,  Grenfell  was  able  to  appreciate  the  con- 
dition of  affairs  on  the  Upper  Congo  as  it  was  before  the  white 
man  had  time  to  effect  any  change  in  the  polity  of  these  people. 
Man  fio-ured  in  these  regions  as  the  fiercest  of  the  carnivores. 
Town  warred  against  town  for  the  procuring  of  human  flesh. 
Now  Grenfell  was  to  meet  the  advance  of  the  Arab  movement. 

After  Stanley's  successful  descent  of  the  Congo  in  1877, 
Arab  ivory  hunters  and  slave  raiders  under  such  leaders  as 
Tipu-Tipu  (Hammad  bin  Muhammad)  had  gradually  advanced 
northwards  and  westwards  from  Nyangwe,  that  Arab  station  in 
the  Manyema  country  on  the  Lualaba-Congo  which  had  been 
visited  by  Livingstone  in  1871.  About  1879  the  Arabs  had 
established  themselves  pretty  firmly  at  Stanley  Falls.  They 
had  also  crossed  westwards  from  the  main  Congo  to  the 
Lomami,  a  river  which  flows  almost  parallel  with  the  Lualaba- 
Congo.  The  Manyema  or  Bakusu  people  after  having  been 
decimated  by  the  Arab  attacks  had  made  common  cause  with 
these  coast  people,"  only  the  leaders  of  whom  could  be  con- 

'  Grenfell  states  that  another  name  for  this  river  is  Mbinga.  Both  Stanley  and 
he  also  quote  the  alternative  title  Biyerre.  "  Aruwimi ''  seems  to  be  really  a  Stanleyan 
mis-hearing  of  Luhimi  or  Ruimi.  The  same  name  for  a  river  is  frequently  found 
amongst  the  Bantu  people  of  Equatorial  Central  Africa,  and  is  variously  spelt  by 
Europeans  Wimi,  Ruimi,  Uruimi,  according  as  it  is  given  with  the  prefix  or  without. 

^  Generally  known  by  the  Swahili  name  "Wangwana"  or  its  local  rendering 
Balungwana,  meaning  "civilized  people."  Another  nickname  amongst  the  Aruwimi- 
Lomami  people  was  Tamba-Tamba.  The  Arabs  in  their  turn  spoke  of  the  indigenes 
generically  as  lVa-ske9izi  (the  conquered),  and  this  term  has  confused  many  an  un- 
wary explorer,  not  even  excepting  Dr.  L.  Frobenius,  who  mistakenly  records  the 
Bashenzi  amongst  the  native  tribes  of  the  Congo. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MUBANGI 


125 


sidered  Arabs  with  moderately  light  skin,  prominent  noses,  and 
long  beards.  Most  of  the  so-called  Arabs  were  almost  entirely 
negro  in  physical  appearance,  though  of  course  Muhammadan 
in  religion. 

Havincj  witnessed  therefore  the  cannibalistic  regime  in  full 
swing  on  the  northern  bend  of  the  Congo,  Grenfell  was  now 
about  to  come  in  contact  with  the  results  of  Arab  devastations. 
After  steaming  away  from  the  hostile  Basoko  towards  the 
mouth  of  the  Lomami  past  a  depopulated  shore,  he  saw  late 
in  the  afternoon  on  the  eastern  horizon  what  he  took  to  be  the 
smoke  of  salt-makers'  fires — for  the  natives  of  this  and  other 
parts  of  Africa  burn  the  waterside  vegetation  in  order  to  make 
salt  out  of  the  potash. 

"Shortly  after  midnight  we  learnt  that  what  we  had  taken  to 
be  the  light  of  a  salt-maker's  fire  had  been  the  flames  of  a  burning 
town.  A  long  line  of  canoes  came  dropping  downstream  close  in- 
shore, flying  from  a  band  of  Arab  raiders  in  pursuit  of  slaves  and  ivory. 
While  talking  with  these  poor  people,  wreckage  of  all  kinds  commenced 
floating  by,  and  for  nearly  three  hours  an  unceasing  and  continuous 
stream  of  hut-roofs,  beds,  stools,  calabashes,  fishing-nets,  ropes,  and 
all  the  gear  that  had  been  thrown  into  the  river,  partly  from  the  towns 
and  partly  from  the  canoes  by  those  runaways  who  found  themselves 
hard-pressed,  or  from  those  captured  by  the  Arabs,  who  would  not  be 
bothered  by  such  plunder." 

The  next  morning  they  reached  the  smoking  ruins  of 
Yambuli  town,  which  had  possessed  about  four  tiiousand  inhabi- 
tants. Beyond  that  they  came  to  another  native  settlement 
which  had  been  quite  destroyed.  Here  there  were  men  linger- 
ing among  the  still  smoking  ruins,  who  called  out  to  the  crew 
of  the  steamer,  "  We  have  nothino"  left,  nothing  !  Our  houses 
are  burnt,  our  plantations  are  destroyed,  and  our  women  and 
children  all  gone."  One  of  the  men  pointed  to  the  islands 
across  the  river  in  the  direction  of  the  Lomami  mouth  (here 
called  the  Boloko  River,  and  higher  up  the  Loomi  or  Lolami) 
and  said,  "The  men  who  did  it  are  over  there."  Grenfell 
crossed  the  river  in  the  Peace  after  passing  more  burning  ruins, 
and  visited  the  Arab  camp  at  the  mouth  of  the  Lomami.  There 
were  here  about  seven  hundred  coast  men  and  Manyema, 
under  the  command  of  Mwinyi  Omani,  the  head-man  in  the 
service  of  Tipu-Tipu.  From  this  point  eastwards  to  the 
Stanley  Falls  the  riverain  country  was  quite  disorganized. 
Thousands  of  fugitives  were  attempting  flight  in  their  canoes, 
and  nearly  all  the  villages  were  abandoned  or  the  inhabitants 
were  skulking  in  the  plantations.    The  women  and  children 


126   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


were  wailing  and  lamenting.  Naturally,  under  these  circum- 
stances it  was  very  difficult  to  buy  food,  though  hitherto  this 
region  had  been  noted  for  its  plenty. 

On  Christmas  Eve  1884  a  visit  was  paid  to  Tipu-Tipu, 
who  was  encamped  at  Stanley  Falls. 

After  leaving  with  Tipu-Tipu  a  few  letters  for  despatch  to 
Europe  via  Zanzibar,  Grenfell  decided  to  return,  and  steamed 
back  to  the  mouth  of  the  Lomami  or  Boloko. 


49.    A  KLfc.ET  OF  CANOE  DWELLINGS  AT  ISANGI,  MOUTH  OF  LOMAMI  KIVEU,  189I 

(In  the  days  of  the  early  Arab  troubles  many  Lomami  people  took  to  living  in  their  canoes, 
a  practice  formerly  adopted  for  trading  purposes.) 


This  river  rises  as  far  south  as  8°  40'  S.  Lat.  in  the  highlands 
of  Samba,  not  very  far  from  the  Lubudi  affluent  of  the  upper 
Lualaba.'  In  the  same  region  it  was  believed,  even  for  a 
considerable  time  after  Grenfell's  explorations,  that  the  upper 
Lomami  really  flowed  into  the  Sankuru  and  Kasai.  Grenfell 
at  the  beginning  of  1885  steamed  up  it  from  the  Congo  con- 
fluence about  140  miles  (not  counting  the  many  windings).' 

'  The  Lualaba  probably  rises  in  about  1 1°  50'  S.  Lat.,  on  the  northern  flanks  of 
the  Chafukuma  ranye,  which  also  jjives  rise  to  the  Kafue,  Luanga,  and  Kabompo 
of  the  Zambezi  basin. 

-  t/renfell  in  his  1885  visit  appends  these  notes  as  to  the  lower  Lomami  : — 
"  Dilanga  a  very  populous  district.    IMpelele  (or  disc  worn  in  the  upper  lip) 
common,  and  usually  made  of  bufYalo's  or  wild  pig's  teeth.    \"ery  fine  country  ; 
plenty  of  bananas  and  palms.    No  mosquitoes.    Forest  not  so  dense,  very  fine 
Calamus  palms,  abundance  of  Crinum  lilies.    Some  of  the  people  have  their  teeth 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MUBANGI 


127 


The  people  on  its  banks  were  very  hostile,  partly  from  native 
savagery,  and  partly  owing  to  their  exasperation  at  the  Arab 
raids.  The  sides  of  the  Peace  could  be  defended  with  special 
blinds  which  acted  as  arrow-guards,  and  but  for  this  protection 
it  would  have  been  difficult  to  have  ascended  the  Lomami  on 
this  occasion  without  serious  casualties,  as  the  natives  sent  out 
flights  of  poisoned  arrows  against  her  as  she  came  within 
reach.  The  river  flowed  for  the  most  part  through  dense 
forests.  The  people  south  of  Dilanga  belonged  in  the  main  to 
the  great  Balolo  race  which  occupies  so  much  of  the  country 
immediately  to  the  south  of  the  central  Congo. 

At  a  point  in  about  1°  30'  S.  Lat.  Grenfell's  steamer  had 
to  stop.  The  river  had  contracted  to  a  width  of  only  eighty 
yards.  It  was  thirty  feet  deep,  and  the  current  was  flowing  at 
the  rate  of  about  four  knots  an  hour.  The  altitude  above  sea- 
level  of  the  stream  at  this  point  was  about  1,350  feet.  A.  Del- 
commune  subsequently  traced  the  Lomami  northwards  till  the 
stream  revealed  by  Cameron  had  become  one  river  with  the 
"  Bojoko  "  explored  by  Grenfell  at  the  beginning  of  1885. 

After  returning  from  the  Lomami  Grenfell  steamed  down 
the  Congo  westwards,  and  once  more  tackled  the  Mubangi  in 
February  1885.  This  he  now  followed  up  resolutely  for  two 
hundred  miles  till  he  reached  the  Zongo  (Grenfell)  Rapids  in 
about  4°  40'  N.  Lat.,  by  far  the  most  northerly  point  yet  reached 
in  the  exploration  of  the  Congo  basin.  The  river  which  up  to 
this  point  constantly  bore  the  name  of  Liboko  could  only  be 
the  Wele-Makua  of  Schweinfurth's  discovery  in  1870.^  When 

filed  down  to  the  gums.  Knives  and  spears  in  great  abundance.  They  call  smelted 
iron  lubulu. 

"  Yaponga  people  use  wide-bladed  paddles,  and  sit  down  in  their  canoes.  The 
canoes  have  squared  ends  in  the  stern  (like  those  of  Fernando  P6).  Between  Dilanga 
and  the  Congo,  the  Lomami  people  do  not  employ  canoes,  but  rafts  or  catamarans. 
Many  monkeys  and  monitor  lizards  in  this  Yaponga  country." 

1  When  Schweinfurth,  following  up  the  hints  given  by  the  \'enetian  traveller 
Miani,  crossed  the  Nile  water  parting  and  reached  the  great  Wele  River  flowing  west- 
wards, he  thought  he  had  lighted  on  the  upper  Shari,  which  flows  into  Lake  Chad.  It 
was  not  considered  possible  then  that  the  Congo  basin  could  extend  so  far  "north. 
But  when  Stanley  proved  that  the  main  stream  reached  to  more  than  two  degrees 
north  of  the  Equator  he  felt  that  the  Wele  must  belong  to  the  Congo  system,  though 
he  made  it  join  the  Congo  through  the  Aruwimi.  It  fell  to  Lieutenant  Vangele  of  the 
African  International  Association  to  complete  the  connection  of  the  Wele-Makua 
(under  the  name  of  Dua)  with  Grenfell's  Liboko-Mubangi,  but  it  was  Grenfell's 
journey  as  far  north  as  Zongo  or  Grenfell  Falls  in  1885  that  caused  most  geographers 
to  surmise  that  the  Mubangi  and  the  Wele  were  one.  On  his  second  ascent  of  the 
Mubangi  Grenfell  was  able  to  get  in  a  boat  past  the  Zongo  cataract  to  the  region 
wherein  the  stream  was  flowing  west  from  east.  Some  vague,  vague  hint  of  the 
existence  of  the  Mubangi  seems  to  have  reached  Italian  or  Portuguese  explorers  in 
the  latter  seventeenth  century,  and  coupled  with  the  stories  of  Hausa  traders  about 
the  Benue  a  hundred  years  later  suggested  to  English  geographers  in  the  early 
nineteenth  century  the  Congo  and  the  Niger  being  one  river. 


128   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


his  realization  of  thie  Mubangi  as  perhaps  the  most  important 
affluent  of  the  Congo  reached  Europe  in  the  summer  of  1885 
it  found  Stanley  incredulous  and  a  little  petulant,  for  he  had 
just  issued  a  book  and  maps  dealing  with  the  Congo  basin  in 
which  the  existence  of  the  Mubangi — independent  of  the 
Sanga-Nana — was  completely  overlooked.  But  the  Belgian 
geographer  A.  J.  Wauters  at  once  identified  the  Mubangi  as 
the  lower  course  of  Schweinfurth's  Wele,  and  Grenfell  had 
attained  to  the  first  rank  in  African  exploration. 

Stanley  after  his  return  to  the  Congo  in  1879  had  been  too 
much  occupied  constructing  a  road  to  Stanley  Pool  and  convey- 
ing steamers  in  sections  to  resume  exploration  pure  and  simple 
until  1882.  He  then  steamed  up  the  Kwa  and  Mfini  into  Lake 
Leopold  H,  which  he  named  and  mapped.  In  1883  he  discov- 
ered Lake  Mantumba  or  Ntomba,  and  by  1884  he  had  delineated 
the  characteristic  features  of  the  main  Congo  as  far  east  as 
Stanley  Falls  with  some  greater  degree  of  accuracy  than 
characterized  his  maps  of  1877.  But  he  had  added  nothing  to 
our  knowledge — not  even  intelligent  guesses — as  to  the  courses 
and  relative  importance  of  the  main  affluents  of  the  Congo.  In 
fact  his  surmises  as  to  the  subsidiary  features  of  the  Congo  basin 
proved  to  be  quite  inaccurate.  He  divided  up  the  immense 
Wele  watershed  between  the  Aruwimi  (which  really  receives 
the  rainfall  immediately  west  of  the  Semliki  and  Albert 
Nyanza)  and  the  Rubi,  a  relatively  insignificant  affluent  of  the 
northern  Congo,  explored  by  Grenfell  in  1885.  The  existence 
of  the  premier  affluent  of  the  Congo,  the  Mubangi — Liboko — 
or  Dua,  is  confused  with  the  Sanga  (which  Stanley  styles  the 
Nana),  and  also  with  a  hypothetical  Lake  Ngiri.  It  is  true 
that  Stanley  records  the  name  Mbanghi,  and  places  its  outlet 
more  or  less  correctly  in  correspondence  with  the  now  well- 
known  Mubangi.  This  information  was  probably  derived  from 
Grenfell,  who  discovered  the  outlet  of  this  river  about  February 
20th  1884,  when  on  the  boat  journey  afore-mentioned.^ 

Grenfell's  second  (and  longest)  journey  up  the  Mubangi  was 
accompanied  by  a  careful  survey  and  by  the  following  notes  : — 

The  volume  of  the  Mubangi  at  its  junction  with  the  Congo 
is  about  200,000  cubic  feet  per  second ;  its  colour  pale  brick-red. 

In  the  flat  marshy  country  of  the  Baloi  (about  1°  50'  N.  Lat.) 
the  characteristic  formation  of  the  surface  is  a  ferruginous  con- 

>  It  should  be  remembered  that  in  the  map  issued  by  Grenfell  and  Comber  in 
1884-5,  thougli  there  is  the  mouth  of  a  river  faintly  indicated  where  the  Mubangi 
joins  the  Congo,  no  name  is  applied  to  it  on  the  map,  though  it  is  stated  {Proceedings 
of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society^  June  1885,  p.  362)  to  be  the  Mubangi  River. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MUBANGI  129 


glomerate  floor  in  horizontal  beds,  suggesting-  at  no  remote 
o'eolooical  date  an  immense  lake  bottom.  The  sacred  ibis  is 
common  about  here.  The  Baloi  people  shave  all  the  hair  off 
the  front  and  top  of  the  head,  leaving  a  kind  of  crest  at  the 
back.  They  wear  for  armour  in  warfare  sleeveless  waistcoats 
of  buffalo  or  elephant  hide.  These  Baloi  "  waistcoats "  we 
found  as  far  north  as  4°  8'  N.  Lat. 

At  about  1°  30'  N.  Lat.  Grenfell  noticed  houses  with  mud- 
based  walls,  and  bark-cloth  in  use  among  the  natives.  The 
people  were  armed  with  sharpened  sticks  for  spears  and  carried 
oval  shields. 

On  this  second  attempt  (February-March  1885)  to  ascend 
the  Mubangi  Grenfell  was  under  the  disadvantage  of  navigating 
the  river  at  the  height  of  the  dry  season,  and  the  river  had  fallen 
quite  four  feet  since  his  previous  visit  in  October.  Still,  there 
were  navigable  channels  between  the  islands  with  which — like 
the  central  Congo — the  Mubangi  is  studded.  Journeying  up- 
stream, the  "  lake  bottom  "  formation  continues  as  far  north  as 
2°  30'  N.  Lat.  From  this  point  southwards  its  course  is  nearly 
parallel  to  the  main  Congo. 

But  above  2°  30'  N.  Lat.  the  hilly  country  begins,  and 
the  bottom  of  the  river  instead  of  beino^  sand  is  rock.  At 
2°  35'  the  people  wear  necklaces  of  human  teeth  and  bore  large 
holes  in  the  lobes  of  the  ears.  At  2°  42'  he  notes,  "  Much 
honey  ;  elephants  ;  ducks  ;  oil  palms." 

About  Bunyembe  (3°  10')  the  people  are  of  large  stature, 
of  a  mixed  type  and  speaking  an  "unknown  language."  Their 
houses  are  like  those  of  the  Upper  Congo  at  Bopoto. 

At  Busembe  (Lat.  3°  10'  N.)  the  men  were  quite  naked. 
The  fine-looking  population  possessed  plenty  of  goats.  They 
were  iron-workers  and  there  seemed  to  be  abundance  of  copper 
in  the  country.  At  3°  30'  N.  Lat.  the  women  were  seen  wear- 
ing grass  skirts  and  large,  heavy  copper  collars.  Their  cheeks 
were  cicatrized  in  patterns. 

The  current  at  3°  30'  N.  Lat.  was  500  feet  per  minute. 
The  cliffs  or  banks  were  often  fifty  feet  above  the  river.  Oil 
palms  were  scarce.  The  Usnea  lichen  was  found  hanging  from 
the  trees  in  great  profusion.  Cotton  was  grown  and  was  in 
blossom  in  February.  At  Lat.  3°  50'  N.  the  rocks  at  dead 
low  water  (February)  almost  threatened  an  obstacle  to  naviga- 
tion, but  subsequent  experience  has  shown  that  the  Mubangi 
during  exceptional  rainy  seasons  is  navigable  for  small  steamers 
as  far  as  Banzyville,  or  almost  half-way  to  the  sources  of 
the  Wele-Makua.     Even  the  rapids  at  Banzyville  are  pass- 

I. — K 


132   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


able  in  the  height  of  the  flood  season.  Boats  and  canoes, 
if  not  steam  launches,  can  at  any  rate  penetrate  as  far  along  the 
course  of  the  Mubangi-Wele  to  the  east  as  Yakoma,  at  the 
junction  of  the  Mbomu^  and  the  Wele.  It  was  noticeable  that 
above  3°  30'  N,  Lat.  the  plaintain  or  banana  became  scarce, 
but  manioc  was  abundantly  cultivated.  The  houses  began  to 
have  tall  conical  roofs.  There  were  fresh-water  oysters  {Aithe- 
rid)  on  the  beaches.  At  about  4°  4'  Grenfell  was  attacked  by 
about  fifty  canoes,  many  of  them  large  ones.  Spears,  arrows, 
sticks,  and  stones  were  thrown  at  the  steamer.  He  afterwards 
landed,  however,  made  friends,  and  bought  a  lot  of  spears, 
knives,  etc.,  from  the  attacking  force.  At  4°  8'  he  "sighted 
very  light-coloured  bush  people  .  .  .  Barumbe  or  Bambenga." 
At  about  4°  22'  he  notes  that  large  kauri  shells  were  useful  for 
trade  and  that  ground-nuts  were  cultivated. 

At  4°  27'  N.  they  found  the  river  breaking  through  a  range 
of  quartz  and  red  clay  hills  a  thousand  feet  high,  and  it  was 
now  seen  to  be  coming  from  a  much  more  easterly  direction. 
Before  attempting  to  pass  through  this  gap  in  the  high  hills, 
where  immense  masses  of  quartz  break  the  river  up  into  a  series 
of  rapids  (the  Zongo  or  Grenfell  Falls),-  Grenfell  considered  it 
wise  to  anchor  the  Peace  and  do  some  prospecting  in  the  rowing- 
boat  which  was  towed  alongside.  On  the  other  side  of  this 
difficult  passage  (through  which  the  Peace  passed  in  safety)  the 
natives  were  no  longer  friendly.  Men,  women,  and  children  took 
refuge  in  "crows'  nests,"  little  forts  which  they  had  built  at  the 
bifurcation  of  the  branches  of  tall,  straight-stemmed  trees.  They 
reached  these  eyries  by  means  of  rope  ladders  which  they 
hauled  up  after  them,  and  from  these  refuges  they  shot  poisoned 
arrows  at  the  steamer.  As  the  travellers  on  the  boat  were  pro- 
tected by  the  arrow-proof  wire  netting  already  alluded  to,  the 
vessel  continued  on  her  way  without  taking  notice  of  this  hostile 
reception.    The  natives  regarded  this  as  cowardice  on  the  part 

^  Subsequent  to  Grenfell's  journeys,  the  Mbomu,  an  important  northern  affluent 
of  the  Wele,  was  chosen  together  with  the  Mubangi  as  the  boundary  between  French 
Congo  and  the  Congo  Independent  State,  and  this  boundary  was  subsequently  recog- 
nized in  its  relations  with  the  Egyptian  Sudan  by  the  British  Government.  It  was 
along  the  Mubangi  and  the  Mbomu  that  Marchand  made  his  truly  remarkable  journey 
in  1895-7.  From  the  upper  waters  of  the  Mbomu  he  crossed  the  watershed  to  the 
Sue  affluent  of  the  Bahr-al-Ghazal,  and  so  descended  to  the  Nile  at  Fashoda. 

-  The  altitude  of  the  Mubangi  above  sea-level  below  the  Zongo  Rapids  Grenfell 
computed  at  1,296  feet.  The  volume  of  water  in  the  Mubangi  at  Zongo  was  only 
70,000  cubic  feet  per  second  in  the  dry  season.  The  falls  begin  on  the  north-east 
at  Mokwangai,  and  continue  southwards  till  the  Zongo  barrier  is  passed.  They 
have  no  general  name,  and  might  well  be  christened  forthwith  the  "  Grenfell  Falls." 
Grenfell,  who  has  done  so  much  for  Congo  geography,  has  no  local  memorial  on  the 
map  like  so  many  other  explorers,  great  and  small. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MUBANGI  133 


of  the  mysterious  invaders,  and  the  villages  in  front  as  well  as 
those  behind  sent  out  fleets  of  canoes  against  the  Peace  till  she 
was  surrounded  by  these  wasps.  As  evening  was  approaching, 
Grenfell  considered  discretion  to  be  the  better  part  of  valour,  and 
turned  the  steamer  round  downstream.  He  soon  left  the  canoes 
behind,  but  just  as  night  fell,  and  they  were  not  yet  past  the 
last  of  the  hostile  villages,  the  steamer  struck  against  the  rocky 
bottom  in  a  shallow  channel,  and  three  minutes  afterwards  two 
of  her  watertight  compartments  were  flooded  and  her  freeboard 
was  on  a  level  with  the  stream.  There  was  nothing  to  be  done 
but  to  run  the  vessel  on  shore,  whether  the  natives  were  friends 
or  foes  ;  and  the  whole  of  the  night  was  spent  in  closing  the 
three  principal  holes  in  the  sides  with  boards,  clay,  and  cotton 


50.  A  POT  FROM  THE  UPPER  MUBANGI— RED  AND  BLUE-GREY 


waste:  in  such  a  way  that  when  the  vessel  again  proceeded  on 
her  course  the  water  could  be  baled  out  more  rapidly  than  it 
came  in.  Thus  they  managed  to  get  through  the  gap  in  the 
hills  and  back  into  the  friendly  country,  where  the  steamer  was 
thoroughly  overhauled  on  a  sandbank  and  the  necessary  repairs 
completed.  After  that,  the  rest  of  the  journey  down  the 
Mubangi  was  most  agreeable,  as  the  reception  was  invariably 
friendly.  Even  where  the  people  had  been  suspicious  or  war- 
like on  the  first  two  ascents  of  the  river  they  were  now  clamorous 
that  the  white  man  should  stop  and  build. 

The  local  names  of  the  Mubangi  (besides  that  word,  which  is 
derived  from  the  trade  language  of  the  Babangi  or  Bayanzi)  are 
Mai  ma  Bobangi  and  Liboko,  in  its  lower  course  ;  Jila  above 
3°  30'  N.  Lat. ;  and  beyond  that  eastwards,  Kwango,  Dua,  Makua, 
Linga,  Ngungu,  Nimba,  Bonso,  Were  or  Wele,  Kibali,  and  Kibbi. 


134  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Even  before  Grenfell  had  discovered  the  Mubangi,  and 
after  Stanley  had  revealed  the  northern  bend  of  the  Congo, 
philologists  had  been  wondering  where  the  Bantu  borderland 
lay  in  this  direction.  The  researches  of  Schweinfurth,  Nach- 
tigal,  Barth,  and  Baikie  had  shown  that  at  any  rate  the  Bantu 
languages  did  not  occupy  the  region  of  the  upper  Wele,  the 
Shari,  or  the  Benue.  How  far  south  did  the  non- Bantu 
tongues  extend,  how  far  north  of  the  main  Congo  did  the 
Bantu  languages  hold  the  field?  It  has  been  the  peculiar 
honour  of  the  missionaries  Grenfell  and  Stapleton^  to  have 
revealed  to  us  the  main  facts  on  this  question.  Stapleton,  as  I 
shall  show  later,  was  the  first  to  discover  that  the  main  Congo 
did  not  lie  wholly  within  the  Bantu  domain  on  the  north-east 
(Bamanga  enclave);  Grenfell  in  this  journey  of  1885  to  the 
Zongo  Falls  noted  that  when  he  passed  north  of  Lat.  3°  2' — 
most  of  all,  north  of  Lat.  3°  30'  on  the  Mubangi — he  had  left 
the  Bantu-speaking  peoples  for  a  race  (probably  the  Banza) 
whose  language  seemed  to  be  of  quite  a  different  order.  The 
small  vocabulary  which  he  recorded  then  and  there,  scattered 
in  and  out  of  his  pencilled  survey,  is  of  a  most  interesting 
character.  By  some  accident  it  has  never  seen  the  light  till  it 
is  now  published  (pp.  838-40),  as  the  pages  on  which  the  vocab- 
bulary  was  inscribed  were  forgotten  at  the  bottom  of  an  old 
travelling  desk,  and  were  only  found  after  Grenfell's  death. 

W.  H.  Stapleton  in  January  1897  journeyed  up  the  Mubangi, 
and  also  observed  that  when  he  had  passed  3°  30'  N.  Lat.  the 
speech  was  non-Bantu.  He  recorded  a  few  words  of  this 
language,  which  he  called  Mpombo,  and  of  which  he  could  not 
trace  the  affinities  :  it  is  probably  the  speech  of  the  Banza 
people. 

Grenfell's  vocabulary  written  down  in  February  1885  is 
fuller  than  Stapleton's,  and  is  the  one  dealt  with  in  chapter  xxxi. 

Lieutenant  Vangele  in  1887,  and  subsequently,  continued 
Grenfell's  explorations,  and  followed  the  whole  course  of  the 
Mubangi  to  its  junction  with  Junker's  Makua,  Schweinfurth's 
Wele,  and  Vankerckhoven's  Kibali.  Eastward  of  the  Zongo 
Falls  the  great  river  was  surveyed  by  Georges  Le  Marinel,  a 
celebrated  Belgian  explorer. 

'  The  Rev.  W.  II.  Stapleton  went  to  the  Baptist  Mission  on  the  Congo  in  1889 
and  worked  on  the  upper  river  till  1906.  The  Rev.  Wm.  Forfeitt's  discover>'  of  the 
non-Bantu  Ndonga  speech  near  the  northern  bend  of  the  Congo  is  also  noteworthy. 


CHAPTER  IX 


THE  RIVERS  OF  CENTRAL  CONGOLAND 
ROM  the  middle  of  March  to  the  beQinnins:  of  Auoust 


1885  Grenfell  remained  at  Stanley  Pool,  occupying 


J_  himself  with  the  work  of  the  Mission  at  Arthington, 
and  with  the  planning-  of  transport  between  Stanley  Pool  and 
the  Lower  Congo.  He  also  inspected  other  places  on  the 
shore  of  Stanley  Pool  in  the  vicinity  of  Nshasa  with  a  view  to 
more  suitable  sites  for  the  Mission  transport  work  in  connection 
with  the  upper  river,  such  as,  for  example,  a  "slip"  for  repair- 
in    the  Peace. 

On  i\ugust  2nd  1885  he  started  on  the  third  voysige  of  the 
Peace,  accompanied  by  Von  Francois  (a  German  explorer),  by 
Mrs.  Grenfell,  and  his  little  daughter,  and  by  eight  of  the  school- 
children of  the  Mission.  On  this  and  other  occasions  it  was  the 
practice  of  the  agents  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  to  take 
the  more  promising  scholars  of  their  mission  school  on  journeys 
about  the  Congo  and  its  affluents.  This  opened  their  eyes  to 
the  world  outside  their  own  village,  and  enabled  them  to  ex- 
change ideas  with  the  savages.  They  also  acted  from  time  to 
time  as  interpreters ;  because  not  infrequently  these  school- 
children were  slaves  or  the  sons  or  dauohters  of  slaves  that  had 
been  stranded  at  Stanley  Pool  and  still  retained  some  knowledge 
of  the  language  spoken  in  their  original  homes.  Thus  on  an 
earlier  occasion  Grenfell  had  manao-ed  to  Qet  into  communica- 
tion  with  the  natives  high  up  the  Mubangi  River  through  one 
of  the  school-children  of  his  Mission. 

It  was  decided  on  this  third  voyage  of  the  Peace  to  explore 
some  of  the  mighty  affluents  entering  the  Congo  in  the 
equatorial  region  from  the  east  or  south.  On  their  way  up- 
stream past  the  Ngombe  town  of  Ilebo  they  noticed  the  corpse 
of  a  woman  hanp^ing-  over  the  water  from  one  of  the  branches 
of  a  great  tree.  At  first  it  was  thought  that  she  had  been 
executed  in  punishment  for  adultery,  but  on  being  questioned 
the  natives  said  she  had  been  guilty  of  a  much  more  serious 


136   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


crime.  They  had  passed  a  law  that  all  goods,  especially  food, 
must  be  sold  to  the  white  man  at  a  price  far  greater  than  the 
local  market  value.  What  the  minimum  sale  price  was  to  be, 
Grenfell  does  not  mention,  but  states  that  the  woman  having 
charged  the  white  men  of  Lukolela  ''only  double"  the  local 

market  price  for 
eggs,  had  been  con- 
victed of  breakino^ 
the  fiscal  law,  and 
had  suffered  death 
in  consequence. 

On  August  24th 
the  Peace  entered 
the  Qreat  River  Lu- 
longo  (called  by 
Grenfell  at  the  time 
Lulanga).  At  its 
confluence  with  the 
Congo  this  river  is 
onlv  six  hundred 
yards  wide,  though 
its  depth  and  cur- 
rent evidence  its 
importance.  It 
rises  to  hio;h  flood 
in  September, 
several  weeks  be- 
fore the  Ruki,  far- 
ther south,  reaches 
its  greatest  volume. 
A  few  miles  above 
its  confluence  with 
the  Congo  it 
spreads  out  to 
three-quarters  of  a 
mile  in  width.  A 
little  more  than  a  hundred  miles  from  the  Cong-o  confluence 
the  Lopori  River  joins  the  Lulongo,  which  above  this  con- 
fluence is   known  as   the   ]\Iarino-a.^     Grenfell  steamed  for 


51.  CRENFELL'S 


■CALAMUS'    PALM,  IX  TWO  STAGES 
OF  GROWTH 

(This  climbing  palm  is  really  A ncistrophyllum  sccundiflorttin .  It  is 
found  all  over  the  equatorial  Congo  basin,  growing  to  heights  of 
two  and  three  hundred  feet  ) 


'  At  this  point  in  his  journal  Grenfell  makes  this  natural  history  note  on 
Lulongo  scenery  :  "  There  were  many  parrots,  and  great  numbers  of  butterflies, 
which  last  pounce  on  things  in  the  water  like  a  bird.  Very  tall  calamus  palms, 
pandanus,  African  teak,  gum  copal,  many  orchids."  "At  the  junction  of  the  Lopori 
with  the  Lulongo  there  is  high  ground— red  clay  clifTs  rising  from  fifty  to  one  hundred 


THE  RIVERS  OF  CENTRAL  CONGOLAND  137 


about  four  hundred  miles  up  the  Lulongo-Maringa,  making 
the  return  journey  to  the  main  Congo  in  less  than  a  week 
owing  to  the  help  of  the  current.  [In  December  1902 
he  notes  that  the  average  speed  of  the  Lulongo  current  was 
128  feet  per  minute.]  This  journey  had  brought  him — whether 
he  knew  it  or  not  at  the  time — to  within  a  hundred  miles  of  the 
Lomami.  In  fact,  the  Congo  basin  differs  from  any  other  part 
of  tropical  Africa  by  the  possession  of  navigable  waterways 
arranged  by  Nature  in  such  a  fashion  as  to  permeate  the  terri- 
tory in  all  directions  (see  map  on  page  495). 


52.  SCENE  TYPICAL  OF  FLOOD-TIME  ON  THE  RIVER,  WATER  UP  TO  THE  HOUSES 


The  land  on  either  side  of  the  lower  Lulongo  is  flat  and 
much  under  water  in  the  rainy  season.  As  a  rule  the  villages 
are  built  on  raised  mounds — ngtinda — which  are  immense  ant- 
hills of  the  termites  flattened  and  levelled.  When  there  are  no 
anthills  or  they  are  not  big  enough,  the  riverain  people  build  on 
the  wooded  islands  ;  but  these  villages  are  abandoned  in  flood 
time  and  the  population  retreats  to  the  mainland  at  some 
distance  from  the  river.  Here  they  embank  their  villages  with 
a  wattle  fence  and  heap  up  earth  against  it, 

feet  above  the  river."  "  Many  of  the  islands  in  the  Lulongo  are  covered  with  houses. 
The  principal  trees  seen  by  this  river  are  bombax,  oil  palm  (scarce),  calamus,  climb- 
ing palm,  pandanus,  and  borassus.  Many  borassus,  extraordinary  abundance  of 
bananas.  .  .  .  Abundance  of  fowls,  goats,  and  sheep  ;  but  no  tobacco  plant." 


138   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Higher  up  the  river  the  houses  continue  to  be  on  posts,  but 
apparently  for  other  reasons  than  that  of  floods,  as  they  are 
raised  on  stilts  even  when  the  land  is  above  flood-level,  "very 
suggestive  of  prehistoric  lake  dwelling-houses."  In  some 
places  the  posts  that  support  the  houses  are  five  feet  above  the 
ground-level.  All  the  cooking  in  the  houses  is  done  upstairs. 
Canoes  are  sharp-pointed  at  both  ends  (not  square  at  the  stern, 
like  those  of  the  Lomami)  and  sometimes  have  a  small  hook  in 
the  bow.  The  paddles,  like  those  of  the  Babuma,  have 
holes  in  them,  lined  with  brass.  Traps  are  laid  for  crocodiles 
on  fallen  logs.  Cloth  was  (in  1885)  of  no  value.  Kauris  were 
used  as  ornaments  ;  the  best  currency  was  beads  and  brass 
rods.  Grenfell  states  that  the  men  of  the  lower  Lulongo 
{?  A^goDibe  people)  are  frequently  seen  with  beards,  and  that  he 
saw  one  woman  with  quite  long  hair.  The  people  on  this  river 
when  they  wish  to  call  attention  to  anything  hiss  loudly.  Their 
faces  (on  the  lower  Lulongo)  are  often  marked  with  semicircular 
cicatrices  between  ear  and  eye  in  three  concentric  rings  ;  or 
there  is  one  big  row  down  the  middle  of  the  forehead  and  three 
side  rows  from  eye  to  ear.  The  women  have  bean-sized  lumps 
regularly  spaced  over  the  hips,  abdomen,  and  back. 

Knives  are  worn  without  sheaths  on  the  thigh,  handles 
tucked  under  waist-string.  The  men  have  a  kind  of  suspen- 
sory bandage  to  carry  the  scrotum,  "and  a  flap  of  skin  hangs 
down  over  this  part  in  front." ^  The  women  wear  a  small  bit  of 
plantain  leaf.  Their  necks,  arms,  and  legs  are  without  brass 
rings  or  ornaments.  On  the  Lulongo  brass  bracelets  and 
anklets  seem  to  be  specially  reserved  for  the  chiefs  and  im- 
portant men.  These  also  wear  monkey-skin  helmets-  orna- 
mented with  brass  plates  four  inches  broad.  Though  here  and 
there  suspicious,  the  natives  along  this  river  were  on  the  whole 
friendly,  at  that  period,  to  the  white  man.  When  the  small 
boat  of  the  Peace  was  sunk  through  an  accident  and  an  over- 
load  of  firewood,  the  natives  came  out  in  their  canoes,  assisted 
to  salvage  the  fuel,  and  later  on  raised  the  boat.  The  Lulongo- 
Maringa  was  found  to  flow  through  a  (then)  populous  and 
wealthy  district,  "  with  a  magnificently  rich  soil."  Slaves,  it  is 
true,  were  being  brought  down  in  numbers  in  the  canoes,^  but 

'  This  rather  obscure  reference  in  Grenfell's  notes  suggests  that  these  people 
may  be  like  the  extraordinary  "  Wanda "  people  of  the  Lulua  \'alley.  These  are 
stated  by  Henrique  de  Carvalho  to  strain  and  pull  down  the  skin  of  the  abdomen 
till  it  in  some  way  serves  as  a  "  tegipudenda.'" 

^  Grenfell  notes  that  a  Colobus  monkey  (called'  by  the  natives  Dibuko  or 
Mabuko),  black  with  a  white  throat,  was  found  on  the  upper  Lulongo. 

^  It  is  noteworthy  from  the  observations  of  Stanley,  Grenfell,  the  present  writer, 
and  others  who  visited  and  described  the  Upper  Congo  between  1S77  and  iS86,  that 


THE  RIVERS  OF  CENTRAL  CONGOLAND  139 


enormous  quantities  of  ivory  were  also  being  conveyed  to  the 
main  river.  Supplies  of  food  were  extremely  plentiful.  Though 
friendly  enough  to  the  white  man,  one  village  was  making  war 
on  another,  the  war  being  carried  on  under  the  observation  of 
the  white  man.  There  was  not  much  loss  of  life,  but  prisoners 
were  grabbed  as  slaves:  and  (in  1885)  the  deaths  of  all 
prominent  persons  of  either  sex  were  celebrated  by  the  killing 
of  slaves. 

In  discussing  the  population  of  the  lower  Lulongo  in  his 
notebooks  Grenfell  propounds  a  theory  that  the  Bayanzi  or 
Babangi  people  originally  came  from  this  region ;  but  he 
adduces  no  facts  in  support  of  this  theory. 

High  up  the  Maringa  or  upper  Lulongo  River,  at  the  town 
of  Gitabi,  he  noticed  a  difference  in  the  population.  It  was 
here  that  the  houses  were  for  the  most  part  raised  on  posts 
some  four  or  five  feet  above  the  ground.  The  tribal  marks  or 
facial  adornments,  instead  of  being  a  multitude  of  great  blebs 
starring  the  whole  face,  were  limited  to  a  parallel  row  of  lumps 
as  big  as  peas  down  the  centre  of  the  nose.  The  bodies  were 
covered  with  raised  scars  the  shape  and  size  of  large  beans, 
about  an  inch  apart.  Instead  of  using  spears  and  sheathed 
knives,  they  carried  bows  and  arrows,  and  wore  unsheathed 
knives  upon  their  thighs.  They  were  clever  and  industrious  at 
forging  iron  ["  there  are  many  blacksmiths  here  "],  and  evidently 
made  an  abundance  of  weapons  and  implements  which  were 
sold  lower  down  in  the  Congo  basin.  Cloth  was  here  at  a 
discount.  An  empty  biscuit  tin  or  a  thimbleful  of  beads  were 
much  more  prized  than  yards  of  Manchester  cotton.  These 
people  were  probably  members  of  the  widespread  Balolo  race, 
locally  called  Bamongo. 

After  returning  to  the  main  Congo  from  the  Lulongo, 
Grenfell  started  to  explore  the  Buruki,  Ruki,  Mai  Mohindu,  or 
"  Black  "  River  of  Stanley.    About  sixty  miles  up  the  Buruki 

before  the  Congo  Free  State  got  any  serious  hold  over  the  country  or  the  Arabs  had 
penetrated  beyond  the  Lualaba  and  the  Lomami,  a  westward-directed  slave  trade 
was  in  full  force  in  the  Congo  basin.  These  slaves,  like  the  ivory,  were  brought 
down  the  tributaries  to  the  main  Congo,  and  for  the  most  part  handed  over  to  the 
trading  tribes  of  the  Bangala  and  the  Babangi  (Bayanzi).  By  these  latter  they  were 
either  conveyed  to  the  Bangala  towns  on  the  Upper  Congo  (where  they  were  eaten), 
or  they  were  transported  by  the  same  traders  to  Stanley  Pool.  Here,  down  to  the 
very  commencement  of  Stanley's  operations  in  1879  they  were  still  resold  as  slaves 
for  the  white  man,  more  or  less.  Prior  to  the  activity  of  the  British  gunboats  in  the 
'sixties  and  'seventies  of  the  last  century  these  Congo  slaves  were  still  shipped  across 
to  Brazil,  Cuba,  and  Porto  Rico.  During  the  'seventies,  when  it  was  less  and  less 
easy  to  evade  the  vigilance  of  the  British  cruisers,  these  Congo  slaves  were  styled 
Krumanos,  and  were  employed  by  most  of  the  European  trading  houses  on  the 
Lower  Congo.  Many  also  followed  the  overland  route  to  San  Salvador  and  thence 
found  their  way  into  Angola. 


I40   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


he  arrived  at  the  confluence  of  the  Moboyo  (which  he  called  the 
Busira)  with  the  main  stream,  now  known  as  the  Juapa.^  From 
its  direction  he  took  the  Busira  or  Moboyo  at  first  to  be  the 
principal  course  of  the  river.  This  he  ascended  for  about  two 
hundred  miles  (in  a  direct  line)  as  far  as  the  village  of  Mburi  or 
Bori.  A  little  beyond  this  village  the  Busira  became  unnavig- 
able,  and  the  people  of  this  upper  portion  of  the  river  were  of 
very  doubtful  friendship,  often  saluting  the  expedition  with 
flights  of  arrows  ["the  bows  are  taller  than  the  men  that  use 
them  "],  and  then  offering  to  trade,  once  again  resuming  their 
hostility  if  the  expedition  approached  within  range.  "When 
being  asked  why  they  are  following  the  steamer  along  the  river 
with  bows  and  arrows  they  say  they  understand  a  big  canoe, 
but  a  big  thing  that  goes  without  paddles  on  the  water  they  are 
afraid  of.  If  we  stop  to  go  in  towards  the  bank  they  will  run 
away." 

Descending  the  Busira,  the  explorers  noticed  that  below 
Tako  there  was  a  stretch  of  about  eighty  miles  of  more  or  less 
uninhabited  country,  which  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach 
seemed  at  one  monotonous  level.  This  country  along  the 
Busira  was  devoid  of  oil  palms  and  the  Borassus  fan  palm  was 
seldom  met  with.  The  pandanus  and  the  climbing  calamus 
were  abundant  in  the  swampy  reaches.  At  Mumbembe  the 
rocky  reaches  characteristic  of  so  much  of  the  Congo  basin 
reappeared  with  towns  built  on  them. 

On  the  ascent  of  the  Busira  a  few  days  before,  the  reception 
at  the  villages  had  been  alternately  friendly  and  suspicious,  but 
on  the  return  journey  they  were  wholly  friendly.  This  friendli- 
ness, as  the  result  of  the  considerate  behaviour  of  the  Peace  s 
crew,  had  extended  by  rumour  across  to  the  Juapa  River  on 
the  north,  and  when  the  Peace  turned  up  the  Juapa,  which  is 
the  best  name  for  the  main  stream  of  the  Buruki,  the  party 
travelled  for  at  least  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  through  "one 
of  the  prettiest  stretches  of  country  we  had  seen  during  the 
whole  journey,"  and  past  villages  which  though  here  and  there 
showing  suspicion  were  for  the  most  part  friendly. 

The  people  on  both  banks  of  the  Juapa  were  cannibals. 
On  the  15th  of  September  Grenfell  came  upon  a  group  who 
were  just  about  to  kill  a  man  and  eat  him.  He  tried  without 
success  to  redeem  him  for  a  cash  payment.    In  another  place 

'  "In  its  upper  waters  the  natives  call  it  Luapa^'  (Grenfell).  The  Belgians 
misspell  the  name  as  "  Chuapa."  As  to  the  lower  portion  of  the  river,  he  writes  : 
"Up  the  Ruki  there  are  many  palms.  A  conglomerate  formation.  The  towns  are 
built  on  lofty  points." 


THE  RIVERS  OF  CENTRAL  CONGOLAND  141 


they  offered  him  a  fine-looking  woman  as  a  wife  in  exchange 
for  a  plump  boatman  whom  they  wanted  to  eat!  "Yet  there 
are  plenty  of  oil  palms  up  the  Juapa,  also  sugar-cane  and 
cassava." 

After  passing  a  short  stretch  of  uninhabited  forest  ["there 
is  a  sandstone  formation  where  rocks  are  visible  "]  more  villages 
with  possible  supplies  of  provisions  were  reached,  and  on 
28th  September  (1885)  the  expedition  stopped,  and  attempted 
to  enter  into  rela- 
tions  with  the 
people.  They  had 
passed  several  small 
fishing-  villaofes,^ 
studiously  keeping 
at  a  distance  so  that 
the  people  might 
begin  to  understand 
that  the  monster 
was  not  animated 
by  hostile  inten- 
tions. 

"  Notwithstand- 
ing our  most  friend- 
ly attitude,  they  hur- 
ried off  their  women 
and  children  and 
household  goods  in 
canoes  up  the  little 
creeks  which  are  so 
numerous  alonor  the 
river  banks,  leaving 
the  villages  empty." 
prevailed  upon  one 


53.  YOUNG  FORM  OF  ANCISTROPHYLLUM  SECUNDI- 

FLORUM  CLIMBING  PALM 
(Beginning  like  this,  the  Ancisirophyllum  gradually  develops  barbed 
hooks  and  segmented  fronds,  and  scrambles  to  the  tops  of  the  highest 
trees.) 


However,  just  before  sundown  Grenfell 
old  man  to  reply  to  his  questions,  and 
before  steaming  away  he  put  a  few  beads  into  a  soup- 
plate  and  set  it  floating  on  the  stream,  telling  the  old  man 
that  when  he  thought  the  steamer  was  at  a  safe  distance  he 
could  come  off  in  his  canoe  and  pick  it  up.  This  he  did 
subsequently  to  his  satisfaction.  Finding  a  good  anchorage  a 
short  distance  beyond,  the  steamer  stopped  for  the  night  in 
spite  of  the  hostile  attitude  of  the  people.  After  some  parley- 
ing, the  people  said,  "  Well,  we  will  look  at  one  another  in  the 
morning.    If  we  have  anything  to  sell  we  will  trade."  Later 

^  Grenfell  notes  here  that  the  natives  were  actually  "overfishing"  the  Juapa, 
and  that  they  complained  of  the  growingjdearth  of  fish. 


142   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


on  a  chief  or  medicine  man  came  down  from  the  inland  town  of 
Bwanga  and  told  the  steamer  party  that  he  had  arrived  to  talk, 
as  the  people  had  run  away  and  told  him  that  "  something- 
terrible  "  had  come.  "  It  was  dark  now,  and  the  medicine  man 
could  not  see  anything.  We  were  to  be  sure  to  stay  where  we 
were  and  they  would  remain  in  the  village,  and  in  the  morning 
we  should  see  each  other.  After  some  confabulation  it  was 
decided  that  the  natives  should  anchor  a  canoe-load  of  firewood 
half-way  from  the  shore  to  the  steamer.    We  should  send  our 


54.  THE  RED  FRUITS  AND  SEED  OF  THE  CLIMBING  ANCISTROPHYLLUM  PALM 
(The  seeds  are  sometimes  strung  together  as  necklaces.    The  fruit  is  slightly  sweet  and  edible.) 

boats  for  the  firewood,  pay  for  it,  and  retire.  This  was  satis- 
factorily arranged,  and  then  they  ventured  alongside  of  the 
boat,  but  were  much  too  afraid  of  the  steamer  to  come  near  it." 

At  this  point  on  the  Juapa  or  Luapa  (as  it  began  to  be 
called)  he  noted  that  the  river  still  might  rise  another  five  feet 
above  its  level  at  the  end  of  September. 

At  Eyombe  and  the  towns  immediately  to  the  east  a  very 
hostile  demonstration  was  made.  The  din  of  the  big  war 
drums  was  terrible.  On  the  beaches  in  front  of  the  big  towns 
hundreds  of  armed  men,  painted  red  and  black  and  white,  were 
dancing  frantically  or  derisively  "turning  their  sterns  towards 
the  white  man  in  derision."    The  air  was  thick  with  arrows, 


THE  RIVERS  OF  CENTRAL  CONGOLAND  143 


probably  all  poisoned.  The  Peace,  protected  by  the  wire  arrow- 
guards,  was  able  to  steam  quite  close  inshore.  Gra#ious  over- 
tures, however,  had  no  effect,  and  the  villages  were  hostile 
even  when  the  steamer  passed  them  on  her  subsequent  descent 
of  the  river.  Fortunately,  further  on  the  people  of  Lokuku, 
Baromo,  and  Losaka  were  friendly,  or  at  worst  timid,  so  that 
the  expedition  was  able  to  renew  its  supplies  of  provisions.^ 
Beyond  Losaka,"  however,  in  the  Buputu  country  (which  was 
not  far  away  from  the  Lomami  and  therefore  had  heard  of 
Arab  raids  and  disliked  strangers,  in  consequence)  the  natives 
offered  determined  resistance  to  the  further  progress  of  the 
steamer.  The  enemy  lay  concealed  in  ambush  at  a  narrow  part 
of  the  river,  and  directed  a  flight  of  poisoned  arrows  on  the 
Peace,  fired  at  short  range  and  with  remarkable  effect.  Some 
of  these  penetrated  the  awning  of  boards,  one  of  them  nearly 
transfixed  Grenfell,  while  the  rest  of  the  crew  had  narrow 
escapes  at  being  wounded.  The  hostility  still  continuing,  the 
expedition  stopped  at  Bokuku  and  turned  back.  The  return 
journey  to  the  Congo  and  down  to  Stanley  Pool — a  thousand 
miles  or  so — was  made  without  check  or  disagreeable  incident, 
and  Grenfell  was  once  more  back  at  his  head  station  (Arthing- 
ton)  in  October  1885. 

In  his  notebooks  or  on  the  margins  of  his  maps  Grenfell 
adds  the  following  particulars  about  the  Juapa  region,  as  it 
appeared  to  him  in  1885  : — 

On  the  Busira  the  people  are  marked  with  cicatrices  from 
cheekbone  to  cheekbone  across  the  tip  of  the  nose.  The 
women  have  straight  cicatrices  round  the  abdomen  and  thighs. 
Sometimes  the  facial  pattern  in  blebs  radiates  like  a  fan  from 
the  base  of  the  nose  over  the  middle  of  the  forehead.  Some 
of  the  Busira  people  slit  their  noses. 

The  houses  in  this  district  are  long  and  rectangular.  Bows  and 
arrows  are  the  weapons,  and  the  bows  are  six  feet  in  length. 
Kauris  are  in  use  and  are  obtained  from  the  people  in  the  south. 

At  Nkole  on  the  Juapa  the  people  speak  Bayanzi.^ 

'  On  the  Busira  journey  Grenfell  notes  the  curious  food  supplies  brought  to  him 
by  the  natives,  some  of  which  he  had  to  reject,  as  they  consisted  of  "  smoked  snakes 
and  caterpillars."  Caterpillars  are  much  valued  for  food  in  this  Juapa  country,  many 
kinds  being  eaten  of  different  flavours.  Each  kind  is  known  by  the  name  of  the  tree 
on  which  it  feeds. 

^  At  Losaka  Grenfell  was  asked,  "Is  the  steamer  your  home?  Have  you  any 
country  ?"  At  one  place  he  inquired  the  name  of  the  river.  The  reply  was, 
"  Don't  you  know  ?  You  are  the  people  of  the  river,  and  therefore  must  know  the 
name."  In  this  region  they  applied  the  word  Ngali  to  "  river,"  a  term  allied  to  the 
Nzadi,  Njali  of  Western  Congoland. 

'  i.e.  the  Congo  trade  language. 


144  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


The  banks  on  either  side  the  Juapa  are  flooded  in  the  rainy 
season.  The  houses  are,  on  the  lower  part  of  the  river,  long 
and  rectangular  ;  higher  up  they  are  square  and  made  of  mats. 
The  people,  though  cannibals,  had  abundance  of  food — fowls, 

goats  (which  they  call 
"  N ta "),  plantains, 
manioc,  sugar  -  cane, 
and  oil  palm.  They 
do  not  use  kauris  as  a 
currency,  but  brass 
rods  which  they  call 
"lunkundu."  Bows 
and  arrows  were  not 
in  common  use  on  the 
Juapa  ;  the  men  pre- 
ferred spears  as  wea- 
pons and  consequently 
carried  shields.  Their 
spears  were  shaped 
like  exaggerated  arum 
leaves.  The  Bakutu 
tribe  (?  Pygmies),  how- 
ever, on  the  south  bank 
of  the  upper  Juapa 
used  bows  and  shot 
their  arrows  with  wreat 
accuracy.  In  the  Lo- 
saka  district  far  up  the 
Juapa  (where  the  river 
is  called  Luapa)  the 
people  use  wooden 
clubs    or  "cleavers." 

PS5.  (OlBATWA   BOW,  ARROWS,  AND  QUIVER   FROM    Uprp    anH  lowpr  r1r.wn 
THE  JUAPA  REGION.    (2)  A  "WOODEN  CLUB"  lOWer  QOW  n 

OR  CLEAVER  FROM  THE  UPPER  JUAPA  the  Hver,  the  shields 

are  not  made  of 
wicker-work  or  of  hide,  but  of  slabs  of  wood. 

The  women  on  the  upper  "Luapa"  are  nude.  The  Balolo 
people  here  (not  far  from  the  Lomami)  knock  out  the  incisor 
teeth  of  the  upper  jaw  or  file  them  down  level  with  the  gum. 
They  decorate  their  faces  with  big  weals  on  the  sides  of  the 
cheeks  near  the  ears,  and  place  four  knobs  over  the  nose. 

At  Diloku  or  Iloko  on  the  middle  Juapa  Grenfell  landed  to 
visit  a  chief  who  was  by  repute  an  elderly  dandy.  He  jots 
down  this  note  in  his  survey-book  (see  illustration,  p.  7)  : — 


THE  RIVERS  OF  CENTRAL  CONGOLAND  145 


"  The  chief,  a  man  about  sixty  to  seventy  years  old,  was 
reddened  to  a  nicety,^  and  wore  a  white,  knitted  cap  decked  with 
parrots'  red  tail-feathers  :  also  an  otter-skin  loin-cloth  and  belt. 
This  last  held  his  highly  polished  copper-handled  knife.  In  his 
right  hand  was  a  spear,  and  a  shield  was  slung  over  the  left 
shoulder  :  in  the  left  hand  was  his  pronged  chair.  A  large  ivory 
trumpet  hung  over  the  right  shoulder  and  completed  his  equip- 
ment." 

An  interesting-  feature  in  these  journeys  up  the  Juapa  and 
Busira  was  the  discovery  of  dwarf  tribes,  known  generically  as 
Bativa  and  evidently  belonging  to  the  "  Congo  pygmy  "  stock. 
Most  of  these  Batwa  are  a  light  reddish  colour  in  their  skins, 
and  even  their  head  hair  has  a  reddish  tinge  occasionally. 
Grenfell  had  met  with  them  in  1884  on  the  Ikelemba  River.  "  In 
the  Juapa  country"  (he  writes)  "they  are  great  hunters  and 
come  to  the  villages  of  the  larger  people  to  sell  the  meat.  They 
are  known  by  the  tribal  names  of  Barumbi  or  Barumbo, 
Bapoto  or  Putu,  Batwa  or  Joapi."  He  also  calls  them  else- 
where "  Bakutu  "  of  the  Batamba  country,  south  of  the  upper 
Juapa.  These  red-skinned  pygmies  (according  to  Grenfell) 
wander  westwards  as  far  as  the  main  Congo.  [Lord  Mount- 
morres  has  traced  them  as  far  west  as  the  eastern  shores  of 
Lake  Ntomba,  and  the  present  writer  saw  one  in  1883  at 
Bolobo.]  He  adds  in  another  part  of  his  notes  further  particulars 
as  to  the  red  dwarfs  met  with  between  the  main  Conoo  and  the 
Juapa  :— 

"  The  Batwa  in  this  neighbourhood  have  little  or  no  neck,  but  big 
heads,  and  beards.  Their  height  is  three  feet  six  inches  to  four  feet 
six  inches.  They  build  houses  and  live  in  them  for  a  month  or  so,  and 
then  move  on,  lodging  in  the  trees  whilst  01  voyage.  They  never  farm. 
They  marry  within  the  family  circle  and  have  many  children.  The 
bigger  tribes  are  jealous  of  them  on  this  account.  The  dwarfs  have 
numerous  chiefs  amongst  them.  They  sometimes  daze  and  dazzle  their 
enemies  by  setting  fire  to  the  bush,  and  in  their  wars  kill  women  as  well 
as  men,  often  making  war  at  night.  They  are  said  to  be  cannibals. 
They  have  three  parallel  lines  of  cicatrices  down  the  forehead.  Twenty 
to  thirty  families  move  together.    They  trap  game  in  pitfalls." 

Between  October  1885  and  February  1886  Grenfell  remained 
at  Stanley  Pool.  This  time  was  spent  on  mission  work,  on 
arrears  of  accounts  connected  with  the  Peace,  and  in  making 
copious  notes  on  natural  history,  native  stories,  sayings,  ideas, 
and  languages.  He  also  interviewed  at  Arthington  Station  the 
many  explorers  now  entering  or  returning  from  the  Congo  basin, 


I. — L 


'  With  powdered  camwood  bark  and  oil. 


146   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


and  compiled  from  their  information — from  1886  onwards — a 
commencement  of  the  store  of  notes  and  extracts  which  to- 
gether with  his  own  original  researches  are  utihzed  throughout 
this  book. 

On  the  24th  of  February  1886  Grenfell  started  again  in 
the  Peace  (the  fourth  journey)  to  explore  the  Kasai  and  Lulua 
rivers.  This  journey  was  not  only  undertaken  in  order  to 
prospect  for  openings  for  mission  work,  but  to  assist  the  explorer 
VYissmann/  who  had  come  out  for  the  Kingr  of  the  Belgians  to 
explore  the  southern  basin  of  the  Congo.  A  passage  also  was 
given  for  the  journey  up  the  Kasai  to  13aron  von  Nimptsch,  the 
Administrator  of  the  Congo  State  before  the  arrival  of  Sir 
Francis  de  Winton. 

Apparently  Wissmann  had  preceded  Grenfell,  either  in  one 
of  the  small  steamers  of  the  Congo  State  or  in  a  rowing-boat, 
and  had  gone  on  to  the  mouth  of  the  Kwa  to  await  Grenfell. 
This,  from  his  own  point  of  view,  was  fortunate,  as  the  Peace 
met  with  a  serious  disaster  near  the  northern  exit  from  Stanley 
Pool. 

At  half-past  one,  in  the  middle  of  the  day,  she  struck  sud- 
denly on  an  unsuspected  reef,  and  the  whole  fore  part  of  the 
steamer,  as  far  as  the  engine-room,  in  three  minutes  was  full  of 
water,  while  the  vessel  sank  to  the  level  of  the  river.  The 
boat  took  off  Mrs.  Grenfell,  her  little  dauQ-hter,  and  most  of  the 

'  Hermann  Wissmann  (afterwards  von  Wissmann),  a  young  lieutenant  in  the 
Prussian  army,  was  born  at  Frankfurt  on  the  Oder  in  Germany  in  1853.  He  came 
out  to  Angola  with  Dr.  Pogge  in  1880,  and  crossing  all  the  great  rivers  of  south-central 
Congoland  reached  Nyangwe  in  1882  and  Zanzibar  in  1883,  thus  traversing  Africa  from 
west  to  east.  Having — with  Dr.  Pogge — reached  the  middle  Kasai  (1881)  where  it 
was  flowing  nearly  due  north,  and  aware  that  .Stanley  considered  the  Kasai  to  join  the 
Congo  through  the  Ruki,  he  returned  to  Congoland  in  1884.  (via  Angola),  and 
between  June  1884  and  July  1885,  with  his  companions  the  Muellers,  Von  Francois, 
and  Dr.  L.  Wolf,  he  revealed  the  main  features  of  the  Kasai  system — the  lengthy  Lulua 
River,  the  still  more  important  Sankuru,  their  junction  with  the  Kasai,  and  the  Kasai 
uniting  with  the  Kwilu-Kwango  and  the  Mfini-Lukenye  to  form  the  great  Kwa 
tributary  of  the  Congo — in  volume  the  greatest  of  the  "princes"  in  the  mighty  Congo 
kingdom.  Wissmann  ranks  third  in  the  hierarchy  of  early  Congo  explorers,  Stanley 
first,  Grenfell  second. 

After  the  Kasai  achievement  of  1885  Wissmann  returned  again  early  in  1886  and 
ascended  the  Kasai  and  the  Lulua  (mainly  in  the  Peace),  and  once  more  crossed  over 
to  the  Lomami  and  Tanganyika.  Instead  of  carrying  out  his  original  plan  of  explor- 
ing Lake  Albert  Edward  and  returning  to  Zanzibar  via  the  \'ictoria  Nyanza,  he 
marched  instead  from  Tanganyika  to  Nyasa  and  emerged  at  Quelimane  on  the  east 
coast  (1887).  From  1888  to  1890  he  was  engaged  in  subduing  the  Arab  revolt  in 
German  East  .Africa,  of  which  dominion  he  was  the  practical  founder.  In  1891-3  he 
conveyed  a  large  steamer  in  sections  to  Lake  Nyasa,  and  further  strengthened  the 
German  hold  over  Tanganyika  by  defeating  and  making  peace  with  the  slave-raiding 
Awemba.  He  was  a  man  of  exceptional  merit,  with  a  high  reputation  among  the 
natives,  never  sufficiently  appreciated  in  Germany,  though  one  of  the  few  great 
Colonial  administrators  Germany  has  produced.    He  died  in  1905. 


THE  RIVERS  OF  CENTRAL  CONGOLAND  147 


school-children,  and  returned  to  fetch  away  the  instruments, 
bedding,  clothing,  and  food  stores.  By  means  of  ropes  and 
the  use  of  the  boats,  they  hauled  the  bows  of  the  Peace  over 
the  rocks,  working  in  almost  mad  haste  before  a  coming  tornado 
broke.  [This  tornado  would  raise  huge  waves  that  might 
bump  the  Peace  to  wreckage.]  By  the  time  the  storm  and  the 
deluge  burst  over  them  they  had  managed  to  float  the  steamer 

on  a  sandbank.   

In  three  days  the 
new  plates  had 
been  riveted  on 
and  the  steamer 
was  watertiofht, 
but,  alas!  she 
had  been  silted 
up.  It  was  neces- 
sary to  send  all 
the  way  to  the 
other  end  of 
Stanley  Pool  to 
invoke  the  as- 
sistance of  the 
American  Bap- 
tist Mission, 
which  had  a 
steamer  of  its 
own,  the  Henry 
Reed} 

With  the  as- 
sistance of  the 
Henry  Reed  and 
her  men,  the 
steamer  was  ac- 
tually dug  out  of 
the  bank,  and  after  a  week's  delay  from  the  time  of  her  first 
striking  on  the  reef  was  again  on  her  way  northwards. 

After  visiting  the  Equator  stations  Grenfell  returned  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Kwa,  and  there  according  to  promise  picked  up 
Wissmann. 


56.  GERMAN  PIONEERS  OF  CONGO  EXPLORATION 
PHOTOGRAPHED  AT  STANLEY  POOL 
(Beginning  on  left — Von  Fran(;ois,  Wissmann,  Wolf,  and  Hans  Miiller.) 


'  This  little  steamer  figures  almost  as  much  in  the  early  history  of  Congo  ex- 
ploration as  does  the  Peace.  She  was  presented  to  the  Livingstone  In/and  Mission 
of  Bow  London,  in  1883,  by  an  Australian  sympathiser — Mr.  Henry  Reed.  The 
Henry  Reed  was  placed  on  the  Upper  Congo  in  1884,  and  figures  much  in  Congo 
history.  The  missionary  captains  of  the  Peace  and  the  Henry  Reed  were  most  generous 
in  their  assistance  to  explorers  and  administrators. 


148   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


During  a  previous  journey  in  1884,  Grenfell  and  Comber 
had  found  their  way  up  the  Mfini  to  Lake  Leopold,  and  also, 
later,  to  the  River  Kwango,  but  had  overlooked  the  main 
course  of  the  Kasai.^  On  this  (the  fourth  exploring  tour  of  the 
Peace)  Grenfell  and  Wissmann  left  Kwamouth  on  the  22nd  of 
March  1886,  and  ascended  the  main  Kasai  without  much  diffi- 
culty. The  Bakutu  people  along  its  banks  had  hitherto  suc- 
ceeded in  preventing  communication  between  the  upper  and 
middle  Kasai,  but  the  Peace  easily  traversed  the  forty  or  fifty 


57.  A  GROUP  OF  BALUBA  NATIVES  (VON  WISSMANN'S  EXPEDITION) 


miles  of  hostile  riverain  population,  and  thenceforward  found  the 
Bangodi  and  Baileo  people  perfectly  friendly  and  willing  to  sell 
food  and  firewood.  The  languages  spoken  in  these  parts  were 
quite  unknown  to  Grenfell  and  his  crew,  and  communications 
could  only  be  carried  on  through  signs.  The  confluence  of 
the  Kasai  with  the  Sankuru  was  duly  noted,  and  the  Sankuru, 
in  spite  of  its  strong  current,  was  ascended  for  some  twelve 
miles  to  make  certain  of  its  separate  identity.  The  journey  up 
the  main  Kasai  was  resumed  till  the  Peace  reached  the  con- 
fluence of  the  Kasai  and  the  great  River  Lulua. 

^  These  confluences  of  rivers  in  the  Congo  basin  are  frequently  hidden  by  islands 
and  sandbanks,  and  the  broad  streams  are  like  lakes  studded  with  islands. 


THE  RIVERS  OF  CENTRAL  CONGOLAND  149 


On  the  I  ith  of  April  they  left  the  main  Kasai  for  the  Luebo- 
Lulua,  and  this  part  of  the  river  being  in  flood,  they  experienced 
great  difficulty  in  obtaining  firewood,  as  the  bank  was  either 
a  precipitous  cliff  or  a  marsh  without  trees,  and  the  water  was 
really  flowing  above  the  low  trees  growing  along  the  more 
normal  shore.  Here  and  there  they  came  across  elephant 
camps,  places  where  elephants  had  stopped  to  repose  and  to 
feed  on  the  scrub.  The  trunks  and  branches  of  trees  had  been 
torn  down  or  uprooted  by  the  elephants,  and  furnished  excellent 
firewood. 

"What  increases  our  difficulties  of  wooding"  (writes  Grenfell  in  his 
journal)  "  is  that  we  are  going  through  an  epidemic  of  measles.  Six 
of  our  men  are  down,  three  others  are  convalescent.  This  crisis  of 
measles  does  not  trouble  me  half  so  much  as  the  abscess  in  the  palm 
of  Baron  von  Nimptsch's  left  hand.  Measles  we  know  what  to  do  with 
and  what  to  expect  from,  but  the  exact  character  of  this  abscess  and  how 
to  deal  with  it  are  open  to  questions.  A  month  ago  at  the  Equator 
Station  Baron  von  N.  asked  Mr.  Eddie  to  look  at  his  little  finger,  the 
tip  of  which  was  swollen  and  painful.  ...  A  fortnight  elapsed  without 
any  particular  indications,  and  then  the  palm  of  the  hand  began  to 
swell  and  become  inflamed,  the  pain  being  intense." 

The  diary  is  much  taken  up  with  the  blood-poisoning  that 
followed  from  this  apparently  trivial  affection  of  the  finger  and 
the  surgical  operations  and  experiments  of  Grenfell  which 
eventually  saved  this  administrator  from  losing  his  arm. 

In  the  course  of  this  journey  in  the  early  spring  of  1886 
Grenfell  had  surveyed  the  Kwa- Kasai  to  its  junction  with  the 
Sankuru  River,  and  to  the  confluence  of  the  Kasai  and  Lulua, 
The  Lulua  he  had  explored  as  far  as  the  entrance  of  the  Luebo, 
had  conveyed  the  great  traveller  von  Wissmann  a  third  of  the 
way  across  Africa,  and  had  enabled  the  Administrator  of  the 
Congo  Free  State  (von  Nimptsch)  to  visit  these  remarkable 
waterways.  He  had  also  rendered  assistance  to  the  small 
steamer  En  Avant  belonging  to  the  Congo  Free  State,  which 
had  the  German  explorers  Wolf^  and  Schneider  on  board. 
He  then  returned  to  the  Congo  and  made  his  way  once  more 
to  the  Equator  Station. 

In  his  journal  at  this  time  there  are  many  entries  regarding 
the  Kwa-Kasai,  Kwango,  and  Sankuru  which,  with  other  notes, 
may  more  fitly  be  given  here. 

The  breadth  of  the  Kwa  estuary  for  this  mighty  river 
system  of  all  south-central  Congoland  is  only  700  yards,  but 

'  Dr.  Ludwig  Wolf  was  the  practical  discoverer  of  the  main  east  and  west  course 
of  the  Sankuru  River. 


ISO  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


the  depth  is  very  great  and  the  volume  of  water  outpoured 
into  the  Congo  is  an  average  321,000  cubic  feet  per  second, 
at  a  rate — in  flood  time — of  five  to  six  miles  an  hour.  This 
greatly  exceeds  the  contribution  of  the  Mubangi-Wele,  which 
near  its  confluence  with  the  Congo  has  a  volume  computed  at 
some  200,000  cubic  feet  per  second. 

Eleven  miles  up  from  its  junction  with  the  Congo  the  Kwa 
estuary  (hitherto  rather  narrow — "a  deeply  ci?t  chasm  in  the 
rocky  hills")  broadens  into  a  lake-like  expansion  two  to  five 
miles  across. 

As  already  stated,  the  common  native  name  for  the  outlet  of 
the  Kasai-Mfini-Kwango  is  Kwa,  at  the  mouth  of  this  deep 
canal.  Higher  up  it  is  Kwau,  and  Grenfell  supposes  this  last 
name  to  be  a  contraction  of  Kwango.^ 

The  colour  of  the  Kwa  water  varies  from  "  bri^jht  brick- 
red  "  to  light  cafd  au  lait  "■ — a  contrast  to  the  tea-brown  clearer 
water  of  the  Conoo.  On  the  north  or  riffht  bank  of  the  Kwa 
there  is  a  line  of  dark  indigo-coloured  water,  often  sharply 
defined  from  the  brick-red  of  the  bulk  of  the  current.  This 
seems  to  come  from  Mfini  and  Lake  Leopold.  On  this  side  of 
the  river  much  grass  comes  down  in  December.- 

People  on  the  north  and  south  banks  of  the  Kwa  near  the 
junction  with  the  Mfini  are  generally  known  as  Babuma,  but 
seem  to  have  different  tribal  names  amongst  themselves.  They 
were  subject  to  a  woman  chieftain  at  Mushie,  an  important 
place,  now  a  station  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  and  near  the 
junction  of  the  Lukenye- Mfini  with  the  Kwa.  Near  the 
junction  of  the  Kwango  with  the  Kasai,  Grenfell  noticed  plenty 
of  game  in  1886 — leopards,  elephants,  hippos.,  crocodiles,  and 
buffaloes.  He  gives  as  alternative  names  for  the  Lukenye 
River  "Lukeia,"  and  for  the  upper  Kasai  "Lumu"  and  "  Mbe" 
(mbe  =  red)  ;  for  the  middle  Kasai,  "  Engela."  For  the  Kwango 
there  are  the  names  Bankui,  Bombeia,  Pfieri,  and  Nkimi.  The 
Kwango  would  appear  to  be  called  Nkimi  (Njali  Nkimi)  at  its 
junction  with  the  Kasai,  and  the  Juma-Kwilu,  the  great  twin- 
sister  stream,  is  known  at  its  union  with  the  Kwango  as 
Ngali  mbe  (  =  Red  river).  The  current  on  the  northern  Kasai 
runs  at  the  rate  of  three  miles  an  hour.^ 

1  Kwango  should  properly  be  pronounced  Kwangu,  but  the  first  is  the  established 
spelling. 

2  In  December  1903  Grenfell  noticed  many  grass  islands  floating  down  the 
Kasai.  As  they  were  on  the  dark- water  side  of  the  river  he  supposed  they  came 
from  Lake  Leopold  or  the  Lukenye. 

3  On  the  main  Kasai  the  water  rose  so  high  in  March  1886  that  no  rocks  were 
visible.  There  is  constant  falling  of  the  clay  banks  both  on  the  Congo  and  Kasai. 
The  water  undermines  the  bank,  it  falls,  and  thus  the  channel  is  constantly  varying. 


THE  RIVERS  OF  CENTRAL  CONGOLAND  151 


Most  of  the  people  about  the  Kwango-Kasai  junction  were 
unmarked  on  the  face,  except  for  the  "  Saturn  "  mark  on  the 
temples.  The  women  were  decorated  with  cicatrices  on  the 
abdomen.  Both  sexes  here  wear  numbers  of  brass  rings  round 
their  necks.  One  man  was  seen  thus  wearing-  eight  rings 
each  half  an  inch  thick.  These  brass  neck-rings  seem  to  be 
worn  as  a  medicine.  "  Some  of  the  men  on  the  banks  of  the 
upper  Kasai  (Basende  and  Basongo  tribes)  wear  white  wigs, 
and  paint  their  bodies  yellow."  Grenfell  states  that  the 
Bambala  people  extend  north  to  the  Kwango  confluence. 
At  this  junction  of  the  Kasai  and  Kwango,  the  houses  are 
round. 

The  Kwango  is  navigable  as  far  south  as  the  Kingunji 
rapids  from  September  to  April,  and  is  lowest  in  August.^  [In 
1904  the  river  was  at  least  three  feet  higher  than  in  1886  ;  and 
the  current  was  very  much  stronger  than  in  1886,  but  was  still 
three  or  four  feet  below  the  maximum.  In  mid- January  1904 
the  water  was  rising  below  the  Wamba  junction  with  the 
Kwango,  but  was  falling  at  the  Kingunji  Rapids.] 

The  shores  of  the  lower  Kwango  below  its  junction  with 
the  Kwilu  (which  river  is  sometimes  called  the  Juma)  are 
thickly  grown  with  papyrus ;  but  where  the  marshy  region 
ends  fine  oreen-bouohed  acacia  trees  line  the  banks.     In  this 

o  o 

district  Grenfell  also  noticed  orange  trees.  Above  the  Wamba 
confluence  ["here  there  are  Bamfunu  people,  also  known  as 
Bangulungulu "]  the  scenery  becomes  grand  and  beautiful. 
Mountains  rise  in  the  background  high  above  the  river  valley, 
really  the  broken  edges  of  the  tableland  from  which  the 
Kwanoo  descends  far  to  the  south.  Lower  terraces'  skirt 
the  watercourse,  and  the  rain  has  carved  these  cliffs  into 
pinnacles,  saddles,  and  sharp  ridges,  or  has  scooped  them 
out  into  amphitheatres  and  battlements,  leaving  here  anci  there 
remarkable  cones  or  domes  of  sandstone.  Some  of  the  cliffs 
seem  to  be  white  with  kaolin.  The  hanging  woods  are  gay 
with  the  scarlet-sepalled  Mussaenda.    The    Kingunji  rapids 

^  The  Kwango,  as  already  mentioned  earlier  in  this  work,  was  the  first  known  of 
the  great  affluents  of  the  Congo,  was  in  fact  known  to  the  Portuguese  merchants  and 
missionaries  in  the  sixteenth  century.  But  knowledge  of  it  did  not  extend  farther 
north  than  the  rapids  of  Kingunji,  perhaps  no  farther  than  the  latitude  of  San  Salva- 
dor, near  the  large  settlement  of  Popokabaka.  Major  von  Mechow,  an  Austrian 
explorer  of  the  Congo  basin,  reached  the  Kwango  a  hundred  miles  south  of  this 
point  in  1880.  He  put  a  boat  on  the  river  and  descended  it  as  far  as  the  Kingunji 
rapids,  but  from  this  point  had  to  return.  It  was  left  to  Grenfell  and  Bentley  in  the 
autumn  of  1886  to  complete  von  Mechow's  studies  of  the  Kwango  by  surveying  the 
whole  remainder  of  its  course  from  the  Kingunji  rapids  to  the  junction  with  the 
Kasai-Kwa.    They  were  accompanied  by  a  German,  Dr.  Mense. 

^  "  In  some  places  1,000  feet  above  the  river."  (Bentley.) 


152   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  GONGO 


(150  miles  above  the  Kasai  confluence)  are  only  a  fall  of  about 
four  feet,  but  the  low  reef  of  rock  is  impassable  for  a  steamer. 
[The  State  has  now  made  a  canal  round  the  rapids.]  The 
country  along-  the  banks  of  the  Kwango  in  1886-7  ^^'S-s  rich  in 
game — elephants,  buffalo,  antelopes,  red  river-hogs  and  hippo- 
potami. In  some  places  on  the  river  bank,  huge  deposits 
of  fresh-water  oyster-shells  were  found,  eight  inches  thick, 
seemingly  the  kitchen-middens  of  early  races. 

Below  Kingunji  the  (?)  Bamfunu  people  mark  their  faces  in 
the  Bateke  fashion,  but  most  of  them  are  not  cicatrized.  A 


58.  THE  LOWER  KWANGO  RIVER 

few  exhibit  triangular  scars  on  the  abdomen.  The  majority  wear 
European  cloth  of  good  quality  and  trade  with  the  people  of 
the  Zombo  plateau,  who  understand  the  Kongo  language.  On 
the  Kwango  above  Kingunji  the  Bayaka  people  wear  a  closely 
tied  cloth  as  a  head-dress,  with  a  tail  six  to  ten  inches  long 
hanging  down  behind  like  a  pigtail.  "The  women  are  small 
and  pleasant-looking.  There  are  a  few  guns,  but  mostly  bows 
and  arrows  of  the  Kasai  type.  In  each  bundle  of  arrows  there 
is  one  with  a  big  club-shaped  end.  Most  of  the  other  arrows 
have  barbed  hard-wood  points,  the  points  being  attached  to 
the  shaft  by  a  well-made  splice.  The  canoes  were  very 
primitive." 

The  Kasai,  below  its  junction  with  the  Kwango  system, 


THE  RIVERS  OF  CENTRAL  CONGOLAND  153 


widens  out  into  a  beautiful  lake-like  expanse  which  has  been 
named  "  Wissmann  Pool."  Above  this  confluence  (that  is,  to 
the  east  of  it)  hills  begin  to  appear  on  the  north  bank  from  one 
to  two  hundred  feet  in  heicrht.  These  culminate  in  Mt.  Poo'cre 
(discovered  and  named  by  Wissmann),  a  dome-like  hill  with  a 
broad  round  base,  about  400  feet  high.  Mt.  Pogge  in  this  land 
of  relative  flatness  is  a  notable  landmark  for  many  miles. 

The  country  on  either  side  of  the  lower  Kasai  between 
the  Juma-Kwilu  on  the  south  and  the  Lukenye  on  the  north 
is  not  flat  marshland,  but  gendy  undulating,  with  low,  swelling- 
downs  covered  with  rich  grass  and  occasional  clumps  of  borassus 
palms.  Wissmann  notes  the  absence  of  papyrus  from  the 
middle  Kasai.  ^ 

The  river  flows  through  a  land  of  red  clay  (the  banks  except 
at  flood  time  are  often  twenty  feet  high  and  very  red),  and  this 
gives  to  the  Kasai  its  constant  tinge  of  brick-red.  The  red  clay 
overlies  a  stratum  of  light-coloured  sandstone  impervious  to 
water  and  horizontal  in  position.  From  this  sandstone  proceed 
the  rocky  spurs  or  reefs  which  advance  into  the  river  between 
each  sandy  bay.  Along  the  banks  a  fringe  of  forest  remains. 
"Tall,  white-stemmed  trees"  is  a  constant  note  in  Grenfell's 
Kasai  surveys,  also  "  bombax  trees,  raphia  and  oil  palms, 
calamus,  borassus,  tall  arums  (probably  Cyrtospermci),  baobabs, 
and  occasional  pandanus  or  screw-pine.  On  land  once  cleared 
there  are  brakes  of  pineapples. 

Water-birds  were  abundant  on  this  broad  stream,  where  the 
current  on  the  whole  is  not  so  swift  as  in  the  Kasai  tributaries.'^ 
Grenfell  on  the  broader  reaches  of  the  Kasai  notes  the  abund- 
ance of  pelicans,  darters,  white  and  other  coloured  herons, 
storks,  spur-winged  geese,  ducks,  scissor-bill,  terns,  fishing- 
vultures,  and  kites. 

The  width  of  the  Sankuru  at  its  junction  with  the  Kasai 
was  estimated  by  Grenfell  at  450  yards.  The  current  was 
very  strong.  [Later,  he  writes  that  in  July  it  is  almost  too 
strong  to  be  stemmed  by  a  boat  with  oars  or  a  small  steamer.] 
Between  the  Sankuru  and  the  Kasai  the  ground  rises  to  hills 
of  six  or  seven  hundred  or  even  a  thousand  feet  with  clefts  in 

1  S.  P.  Veiner  thus  describes  the  scenery  of  the  lower  Kasai :  "  Vast  savannas 
roll  incessantly  towards  the  horizon,  covered  with  high  grass  and  tangled  cane  brakes. 
The  soil  is  deep,  thick,  black  muck.  Marshes,  bogs,  and  miry  fens  abound.  Deep, 
slrggish  creeks  flow  lazily  towards  the  river.  Water-fowl  of  every  description  haunt 
the  banks,  and  crocodiles  and  hippopotami  are  plentiful.  Native  villages  are  rare. 
The  land  looks  wild,  the  wild  landscape  lonely." 

^  "  Very  strong  current  in  April."  The  force  of  the  stream  is  least  and  the  river 
is  apparently  at  its  lowest  in  October. 


154   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


between.  In  fact  one  leaves  here  the  area  of  the  ancient  lake 
basin. 

The  Kasai  was  for  all  practical  purposes  discovered  by- 
Livingstone  on  February  27th  1854  just  at  the  bend  in  its  ex- 
treme upper  course  where,  after  flowing  some  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  eastward  from  its  source  in  the  Chibokwe  Mountains, 
it  turns  rather  abruptly  to  the  north.  The  Kasai  rises  almost 
within  a  day's  walk  from  the  sources  of  the  Kwango  and  the 
affluents  of  the  Kwanza  River.     Livingstone^  writes  that  it  is 


59.  THE  SANKURU  RIVER  NEAR  LUSAMBO 
Fish  traps  and  fish  weirs  in  the  foreground. 


locally  known  as  the  Kasai  or  Loke.  Loke  seems  to  be  the 
commoner  name  of  the  two  at  about  150  miles  from  its  source. 
He  refers  to  people  on  its  banks  (when  he  crossed  it)  as  the 
Kasabi.  Portuguese  geographers  style  the  river  at  its  origin 
the  "Cassabe."  If  this  is  the  ultimate  form  of  the  name,  it  is 
interesting.  Ka-  is  only  a  prefix  (in  this  region  an  honorific  or 
affectionate  prefix),  but  sabi  is  a  very  widespread  South  Bantu 
root  for  river  names.    The  actual  name  Kasai  does  not  cling 

'  Livingstone  in  1854  also  recorded  the  existence  of  the  Lulua,  Lubilash  (San- 
kuru),  and  Kwilu,  besides,  of  course,  the  Kwango.  He  laid  down  the  courses  and 
the  junction  of  all  these  rivers  and  their  ultimate  absorption  into  the  Congo  quite 
correctly  (from  native  information).  This  information  having  been  published  by 
Livingstone  in  1857,  it  is  curious  that  Stanley  should  have  so  long  ignored  the  right 
theory. 


THE  RIVERS  OF  CENTRAL  CONGOLAND  155 


to  the  great  river  farther  north  than  about  8°  S.  Lat.  After 
that  its  name  is  Nyele  down  to  the  confluence  with  the  Lukia 
(which  at  this  spot  is  called  the  Mile).  Then  it  is  called 
Sankuru  or  Shankulu,  and,  lower  down,  Nzadi,  Nshale,  Mele, 
Bulumbu  or  Kama.  Nzadi  (or  Nshale,  Nzari  Ngali)  simply 
means  big  river,  and  is  a  word  applied  also  to  the  Kwango 
and  to  the  main  western  Congo,  hence  the  Portuguese  name 
for  Congo  =  Zaire  \yide  notes  on  pages  143  and  283]. 

Short  stretches  of  the  middle  Kasai  are  no  doubt  navigable, 
but  the  natives  along  its  course  are  so  determinedly  hostile  to 
Europeans  that  the  mighty  stream  is  practically  unexplored  in 
detail  between  the  abandoned)  Congolese  post  of  Dilolo  in 
Lat.  10°  40'  and  the  Pogge  Falls  in  Lat.  6°  40'.  Navigability 
for  steamers  from  the  north  ends  at  the  Wissmann  Falls  in 
about  5°  20',  just  above  the  junction  between  Kasai  and  Lulua. 

At  the  Wissmann  Falls,  at  the  junction  of  the  Luebo  and 
Lulua,  and  again  at  Lusambo  on  the  Sankuru,  barriers  of  large, 
rounded  boulders  extend  entirely  across  the  river,  being  almost 
complete  barriers  to  navigation,  and  at  low  water  almost  en- 
tirely uncovered.  They  are  considered  by  Mr.  Verner^  to 
mark  the  ancient  shore-line  of  the  vast  Congo  Lake.' 

The  whole  country  between  the  Kasai  and  Sankuru  (accord- 
ing to  Grenfell  and  Verner)  is  strewn  with  boulders  varying  in 
size  from  a  football  to  a  large  hen-coop  : — 

"  They  are  composed  of  dark  rock  of  medium  hardness,  rounded  in 
shape,  often  striated  and  scratched  .  .  .  possibly  sandstone.  There  are 
also  pebbles  from  a  peanut  to  a  baseball  in  size,  chiefly  of  quartz,  also 
apparently  pieces  of  limestone.  .  .  .  The  first  soil  under  the  humus  is 
red  clay,  then  a  bluish-white  clay  used  for  pottery  and  full  of  pebbles, 
and  then  the  sandstone." 

Verner  thus  describes  the  stratification  of  the  cliffs  above 
the  Kasai : — 

"  First  a  layer  of  red  ferruginous  clay  about  seven  feet  deep  ;  then 
a  mass  of  irregular  sandstone  boulders  extending  downwards  for  ten 
feet ;  then  a  thick  layer  of  bluish-white  clay  about  thirty  feet  in  depth 
and  full  of  pebbles,  and  under  this  a  layer  of  crumbling  sandstone." 

^  The  same  writer  {^Pioneering  in  Central  Africa)  gives  this  pen  picture  of  the 
Kasai  above  the  Wissmann  P'alls  : — 

"  Roaring  waters,  mighty,  dense,  tomb-hke  forests,  dazzling  waterfalls,  grunting 
hippopotami,  jumping  fish,  and  the  red  glare  of  the  tropical  sun  on  water,  sand  and  sky." 

"The  path  from  Luebo  to  Ndombe  followed  what  was  clearly  an  ancient  shore- 
line, the  margin  of  a  primeval  inland  sea.  The  prevailing  type  of  the  rocks  was  very 
hard  sandstone,  with  crystalline  irruptive  trap,  their  stratification  tilted  at  an  angle  of 
over  sixty-five  degrees,  and  there  were  masses  of  rugged  conglomerate  below  the 
mountain  fissures.  Some  of  these  fissures  were  of  considerable  size,  and  were  filled 
by  charming  little  lakes,  often  of  great  depth." 


156   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


What  Mr.  Verner  describes  as  fossil  amber  (of  which 
masses  are  occasionally  found)  is  more  probably  fossil  gum 
copal.  Both  he  and  Grenfell  praise  the  beauty  of  the  scenery 
in  the  region  where  the  Kasai  leaves  the  edge  of  the  vast, 
broken  Lunda  plateau.  Verner  is  especially  enthusiastic  as  to 
the  country  between  the  Kasai  and  the  Luebo  on  the  road 
between  Ndombe  and  Bindundu  : — 

"  The  bald,  rocky  mountains  rise  for  about  a  thousand  feet  above 
the  surrounding  plains,  some  of  them  of  jagged  limestone.  The  long, 
yellow  flood  of  the  Kasai — a  golden  ribbon  in  a  dress  of  green  forests, 
which  extend  on  either  side  of  the  yellow  flood  to  the  mountain  tops, 
which  are  distant  about  twenty  miles  on  either  side.  Southwards,  the 
mighty  heads  of  the  Wauters  Mountains,^  outlined  against  the  sky, 
range  upon  range,  peak  above  peak,  glad  reminders  of  higher  and 
cooler  lands.  The  roar  of  rushing  waters  is  everywhere  in  the  air, 
streamlets  springing  from  hilly  fountains  or  marshy  plateaux,  their 
courses  being  indicated  by  narrow  bands  of  woodland  and  long,  silvery 
lines  of  fog.  Little  mountain  lakes  gleam  in  the  radiant  sunshine, 
emeralds  set  in  a  crown  of  golden  hills." 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  h'lsh.  land  in  the  enclave  between 
the  Sankuru-Lubudi  and  the  Lulua.  The  forests  in  this  region 
are  limited  chiefly  to  the  river  valleys.  It  is  only  apparently 
between  the  Lulua  and  middle  Sankuru  and  the  Lomami  that 
they  vie  in  continuous  density  with  the  forests  of  the  Aruwimi 
basin. 

"  The  plains  adjoining  the  forests  are  lovely  and  unique.  Glades  of 
short,  evergreen  grass  dotted  with  small  woodlands,  palm  groves,  and 
pineapple  thickets  here  and  there.  The  trees  are  often  stunted,  with 
very  large  yellow,  mock-orange  fruit,  their  bark  rendered  impervious  to 
fire  through  the  hardening  process  of  bush  fires  that  have  gone  on  for 
ages  ;  tangled  thickets  of  thorns  and  lianas,  and  loveliest  flowers,  orchids 
and  ferns  are  scattered  over  the  whole."  (Verner.) 

On  the  banks  of  the  Sankuru  Grenfell  noticed  a  species  ot 
raphia  palm  new  to  him.  The  natives  called  it  "  IMabundu," 
and  the  enormous  midribs  of  the  mighty  fronds  were  bright 
orange-yellow.  This  palm  supplies  the  bast  or  fibre  used  for 
weaving  the  now  celebrated  pile  cloths  of  the  Kasai  peoples 
and  of  the  Bakuba  country. 

The  name  "Sankuru"  should  really  be  pronounced  San- 
kulu.    It  may  mean  "  The  Great  Father  "  or  "  Father  of  Great- 

'  The  Wauters  Mountains  bordering  on  the  north  the  upper  basin  of  the  Kasai 
are  spurs  of  hard  sandstone  and  conglomerate.  They  really  border  on  the  north  the 
immense  fertile,  populous  plateau  of  Lunda.  To  the  north  of  them  the  land  slopes 
downwards  towards  the  central  basin  of  the  Congo,  and  is  a  succession  of  rolling  hills 
and  broad,  undulating  valleys,  rivers  and  streams  everywhere  bordered  with  gigantic 
forests. 


THE  RIVERS  OF  CENTRAL  CONGOLAND  157 


ness."  The  term  is  also  applied  to  the  Kasai  River  in  the  same 
region.  In  its  extreme  upper  course  the  Sankuru  is  known  as 
Lubilash,  a  name  first  recorded  by  Livingstone  in  1854.  The 
natives  in  some  districts  look  upon  the  Sankuru  as  the  main 
stream  and  the 
Kasai  as  a  tribu- 
tary. Neverthe- 
less, accordinor  to 
Grenfell  the 
Kasai  above  its 
confluence  with 
the  Sankuru  has 
a  volume  of  some 
89,000  cubic  feet 
per  second,  while 
the  outflow  of 
the  Sankuru  is 
only  42,000  cubic 
feet. 

•  There  mioht 
be  a  better  case 
argued  for  the 
equality  in  impor- 
tance  of  the 
Lulua  with  the 
Kasai.  It  has 
nearly  as  long  a 
course,^ but  Gren- 
fell computes  its 
volume  as  only 
35,000  cubic  feet 
per  second 
against  the 
54,000  cubic  feet 
of  the  Kasai.  In 
its  lower  course  the  Lulua  flows  through  vast  forests  of  oil  palms. 

"  There  were  large  groves  of  oil  palm  trees,"  writes  Verner,  "  with 
tangled  thickets  growing  so  closely  as  almost  to  choke  up  the  path. 
The  boys  said  that  these  groves  were  the  sites  of  former  villages,  now 
removed  to  other  places.  This  custom  of  moving  their  towns  I  found 
to  be  a  well-established  rule.    The  natives  said  that  after  a  while  the 


60.  KASAI  CLOTH  OF  RAISED  PILE 

Made  from  raphia  "bast  "  or  fibre  (the  substance  of  the  leaflets  of  the 
young  fronds). 


1  The  Lulua  rises  in  the  extreme  south  of  Congoland,  within  a  short  distance  ot 
the  source  of  the  head  stream  of  the  main  Zambezi,  just  as  the  Kasai  takes  its  origin 
close  to  the  beginnings  of  the  western  upper  Zambezi  (Lungwebungo). 


158    GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


ground  of  their  towns  became  bad.  The  evil  spirits  seek  to  overwhelm 
them,  and  they  must  build  on  new  and  holy  ground.  F"rom  hygienic 
and  sanitary  conditions  one  would  certainl}'  approve  of  this  unique 
African  custom.  When  a  town  is  deserted  the  land  becomes  grown 
over  from  the  seeds  left  about  the  houses,  and  their  productive  power  is 
remarkable.  The  palms  in  these  groves  produce  wine,  oil,  cabbage,  and 
bamboo,  besides  palm  fibre  for  making  cloth  and  the  leaves  for  covering 
houses.  The  pineapples  afforded  us  a  generous  feast,  and  but  for  the 
lack  of  water  would  have  sufficed  for  our  lunch  on  the  waj'."  (Verner.) 

Wissmann,  Ludwig  Wolf,  Grenfell,  Verner,  all  refer  in 
their  writings  to  the  astonishing  abundance  of  the  pineapple  in 
South  Central  Congoland.  In  its  way  this  fact  is  nearly  as 
remarkable  as  the  spread  of  the  tobacco  plant.  Both  are  of 
American  origin,  and  both  have  only  had  about  330  years  in 
which  to  spread  nearly  all  over  tropical  Africa.  The  manioc, 
papaw,  and  red  pepper  are  other  instances  of  American  plants 
that  have  penetrated  rapidly  to  the  innermost  recesses  of  the 
Dark  Continent. 

There  is  a  great  spur  of  mountain  country  (the  Samba 
Mountains),  rising  in  places  to  perhaps  4,000  feet,  which  bifur- 
cates with  the  Zambezi-Cono;o  rano-e  near  Mount  Kamea,  and 
divides  the  basin  of  the  Lualaba  from  that  of  the  Lulua  and 
Sankuru.  This  strongly  marked  earth-wrinkle  divides  into 
two  main  spurs  under  the  9th  degree  of  S.  Lat.,  and  acts 
as  the  fountain-head  of  the  Lomami,  separating  its  basin  from 
that  of  the  Lualaba  and  of  the  Sankuru- Luembe.  The  Samba 
mountains  contain  regions  of  remarkable  natural  beautv,  diver- 
sifted  as  they  are  with  many  mountain  lakes  and  tarns  (the 
largest  of  which  is  Lake  Lubangole),  with  noble  forests,  naked 
granite  rocks,  fruitful  plantations,  and  innumerable  streams. 
As  they  advance,  their  spurs  towards  the  north  on  either 
side  of  the  Lomami  crumble  into  hills  and  are  softened  into 
rollino-  downs,  macrnificentlv  forested.  The  Batetela-Bankusu 
country  which  lies  athwart  the  middle  course  of  the  Lomami 
is  exceedingly  rich  and  fertile,  a  level  prairie  land  with  a  deep 
black  soil.  Here  remain  some  patches  of  primeval  woodland, 
though  the  land  has  been  much  more  disforested  by  man  than 
is  the  case  with  the  middle  and  upper  Sankuru  basin. 

The  peoples  of  South-Central  Congoland  may  be  conve- 
niently enumerated  here.  The  Balolo  in  the  centre  (also 
known  as  Ndolo,  Mongo,  Bankundu),  Ngombc  on  the  north 
and  north-west  (near  the  main  Congo),  the  Bayanzi  on  the 
west,  together  with  the  Babiima  people  along  the  lower  Kasai, 


THE  RIVERS  OF  CENTRAL  CONGOLAND  159 


account  for  most  of  the  main  groups  of  Bantu 
(Pygmies  excepted)  between  the  region  bounded  by  the 
Lomami  River,  the  Lopori-Lulongo,  the  lakes  Ntomba  and 
Leopold  II,  and  the  River 
Lukenye.  The  Balolo  peoples 
(as  classified  by  language)  ex- 
tend a  short  distance  east- 
wards of  the  Lomami  till 
they  come  in  contact  with  the 
lower  Lomami  tribes  belorig- 
inor  to  the  Soko  and  Kele 
groups  or  the  non  -  Bantu 
Bamangra.  Where  the  ground 
rises  above  the  old  level  of 
the  Conoro  Lake  and  the 
Lomami  is  flowing  through  a 
hilly  country  south  of  Lat. 
2°  30'  S.  one  encounters  a 
people  like  the  Benakainba 
and  Ba-viunbtt  of  purer  Bantu 
speech,  connected  linguisti- 
cally with  the  tribes  east  of 
the  Equatorial  Lualaba  or 
those  of  the  great  Luba 
group. 

The  Basongo  or  Basongo- 
meno^  and  the  Bashilange 
[Bankuiii]  are  the  principal 
tribal  designations  of  the 
Bantu-speaking  peoples  be- 
tween the  Lukenye  on  the 
north  and  the  Kasai-Sankuru 
on  the  south.  The  Batetela 
between  Lomami  and  Sankuru 
(like  the  Bakusu  or  Bankimi 
farther  east)  seem  to  be  con- 
nected in  origin  and  language 
with  the  Manyema  :  perhaps  also  with  the  recently  formed, 
mongrel,  warlike  tribe  known  as  the  "  Zappo-zaps  "  \Basonge). 

Between  the  Wamba  River  on  the  west  and  the  Kasai  on 
the  north  and  east  there  is  a  bewildering  medley  of  peoples. 


61. 


A  TYPICAL  MUYANZI  (A  SAWYER  OF 
THE  MISSION  AT  BOLOBO) 
The  Bayanzi  or  Babangi  range  from  the  lower  Kasai  to 
the  main  Congo  and  the  Mubangi  confluence. 


'  This  term  means  "  they  sharpen  "  or  "  they  sharpen  teeth."  A  somewhat  similar 
people  known  as  Basongc  seems  to  be  found  between  Sankuru  and  Lomami,  south  of 
the  Batetela. 


i6o   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


described  of  late  in  the  writintr.s  of  Mr.  Eniil  Tordav.'  Their 
tribal  names  and  approximate  localities  are  sufficiently  illus- 
trated in  the  ethnographical  map  which  accompanies  this  book. 
Varying  very  much  in  physical  development  (though  belonging 
mostly  to  the  Forest  negro  type),  they  are  mostly  associated 
with  the  speaking  of  corrupt,  worn-down  Bantu  dialects  about 
equally  related  to  the  Luba,  Kongo,  Teke,  and  Yanzi  groups. 

Besides  the  already  mentioned  Bayaka  and  Bayanzi  and 
their  kindred,  these  include  such  important  tribes  as  the  Bahiiana 
and  Bambala,  the  Babunda,  Bapindi  (or  Bapeinde),  Badinga^- 
Basainba,  Bakivese,  Basongo  (akin  to  those,  no  doubt,  who 
dwell  between  the  Kasai  and  the  Lukenye)  and  Bangongo. 

F"arther  south  are  the  Bahta,  who  are  evidently  a  northern 
section  of  the  A-hinda  people  (rather  than  a  western  branch  of 
the  Baluba).  Then  before  the  real  Lunda  territories  are 
reached  (within  Portuguese  political  limits)  comes  an  unin- 
habited tract  ranged  over  by  the  Ba-kioko  raiders. 

Between  the  Luanje  River  and  the  Kasai  are  the  Bashilcle 
and  the  Tjtkoiigo,  fierce  peoples  very  hostile  at  present  to  the 
white  man.  The  Bashilek  (or  Bena  Lindi)  arc  related  to 
the  Bashilavge^  and  they  again  to  the  Basonoo  and  the  great, 
far-spreading  Luba  group. 

As  to  the  language  affinities  of  the  Tiikongo''  or  Ba-/,ongo 
little  or  nothing  is  known.    The  Bapindi  (-mpende,  -peindi)^ 

'  Published  in  Afan  and  the  Jotirval  of  the  Royal  Anthropological  Institute  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

-  "The  (Radinga)  people  along  the  (lower)  Kasai  are  inclined  to  be  turbulent  and 
drunken.  Abundance  of  palm  wine  makes  them  so.  They  are  very  little  cicatrized, 
but  wear  the  "  Saturn  "  mark  (dot  within  a  ring)  on  the  temples.  Nakedness  here  is 
less  the  fashion  than  in  the  Babuma  country.  The  chiefs  especially  wear  ample 
skirts  of  cloth  and  prettily  worked  caps."  (Grenfell.) 

^  "  The  Bashilange  maintain  constant  relations  with  the  Kioko,  those  warlike 
and  intelligent  blacks  whose  original  home  was  in  the  mountains  of  the  upper 
Kwango.  The  Kioko  are  bold  and  cunning  traders  who  would  hold  their  own  as 
merchants  with  the  Arabs  themselves.  The  half-breeds  of  Angola  also  frequently 
visit  the  Bashilange,  and  particularly  the  Kioko.  Hence  it  comes  that  one  often 
finds  among  these  tribes  crucifixes,  crosses,  and  chaplets.  A  great  number  of 
fetishes  bear  crosses,  and  these  are  among  the  most  venerated. 

"Through  the  Kioko  these  last  have  learnt  to  cultivate  india-rubber,  which  they 
extract  from  creepers  and  lianas  by  means  of  triangular  incisions.  The  Kioko  have 
in  a  way  the  monopoly  of  trading  among  these  tribes  ;  all  their  ivory  and  india- 
rubber  have  been  hitherto  transported  to  Malanje  (Portuguese  territory)."  (Torday.) 

^  Tu-  is  a  plural  prefix  (usually  diminutive  or  affectionate  in  sense)  which  answers 
to  the  singular  prefix  Ka-.  The  root  of  this  name,  therefore,  is  "  Kongo,"  which  means 
both  "  spear  "  and  "  hunter."  There  is  nothing  for  or  against  the  Tu-  or  Ba-kongo  of 
the  Kasai  being  the  far-back  progenitors  of  the  Bakongo  of  western  Congo.  The 
Tukongo  of  the  Kasai  are  said  to  speak  a  dialect  of  Luba,  but  this  language  is  not 
inherently  dissimilar  to  the  Kongo  tongue  of  the  west. 

^  "The  Bampende  are  tatued  in  a  strange  way.  They  are  people  of  unusual 
good  looks — quite  a  handsome  lot  of  men.  Among  these  and  other  tribes  in  the 
southern  basin  of  the  Congo,  Kasongo  appears  to  mean  smith,  blacksmith."  (Verner.) 


THE  RIVERS  OF  CENTRAL  CONGOLAND  i6i 


inhabit  the  lands  on  either  side  of  the  middle  Kasai  (in  an 
interrupted  range)  and  extend  as  far  east  as  the  Lulua. 
According  to  Torday,  the  more  aboriginal  tribes  of  this 
Kwango-Kwilu-Kasai  region  are  the  black-skinned  lumpish 
Babunda^  the  Bayaka,  Basamba,  Basongo,  and  IVa-  or  Ba- 
ngongo.  The  Bak- 
wese  (who  seem  to 
have  migrated  from 
the  south-east,  leav- 
ing colonies  behind 
in  the  basin  of  the 
upper  Lualaba)  are 
related  to  the  Iin- 
bangala  of  the  mid- 
dle Kwango,  the 
Imbangala  being- 
obviously  the  "Jag- 
gas  "  of  Angolan 
history. 

Nearly  all  these 
tribes  are  still  canni- 
bals, except  the 
western  Bayaka, 
most  of  the  Bak- 
wese,  and  the  Balua. 
In  all  this  vast  area 
between  the  Kwan- 
go and  the  Kasai 
— or  at  any  rate  the 
Luanje — there  are 
seemingly  no  Pyg- 
my people  linger- 
ing. These,  under 
the  name  of  Batwa, 
only  make  their 
appearance  on  the 
east  bank  of  the  middle  Kasai.  Grenfell  discovered  many 
traces  of  Pygmy  peoples  in  Central  Congoland  and  up  the 
Lomami.  No  doubt  they  continue  their  range  uninterruptedly 
southwards  to  the  Sankuru.  Between  Kasai,  Sankuru,  and 
Lomami  they  have  been  reported  by  many  travellers,  but 

1  -bufuia,  -bondo,  -butufu,  -biino,  -poiida  is  a  varying  root  right  across  Southern 
Congoland  and  much  else  of  South-West  Bantu  .'\frica,  and  is  often  associated  with 
serfs  or  helot  tribes. 


62.   (Ij  NATIVE  l  ETIbH  KKUM  THE  SOUTHERN  PART  OF 
THE  CATARACT  CONGO 
The  strings  tied  round  the  neck  are  offerings  for  benefits  received. 
(2)  IMAGE  OF  ST.  CHRISTOPHER  AND  THE  INFANT 
CHRIST,  FOUND   IN  THE  SAN  SALVADOR  DIS- 
TRICT 

(Possibly  some  two  or  three  hundred  years  old.  Has  been  used  as  a 
fetish).  .Similar  types  to  (i)  and  (?)  are  found  among  the  Kioko  and 
Bashilange. 


I. 


-M 


i62   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 

their  southward  range  does  not  seem  to  extend  beyond  6°  S. 
Lat.  or  6°  30'.  They  dwell  in  numbers,  peaceably  and  happily, 
where  the  Bakuba  rule. 

The  Bakuba  are  a  most  remarkable  race,  an  unsolved 
mystery  as  yet.  The  Bantu  language  of  the  southern  Bakuba 
(only  so  far  illustrated  by  a  few  words  collected  by  Henrique 
de  Carvalho  and  von  Wissmann)  is  shared  by  the  Bakete 

(a  helot  tribe  of  ordi- 
nary negro  type)  and 
by  the  Batwa  Pyg- 
mies who  dwell 
amongst  the  Ba- 
kuba, and  this  dia- 
lect is  very  peculiar 
and  quite  distinct 
from  the  Luba 
species.  But  it  is 
corrupt  and  not  of 
an  archaic  type. 
The  Bakuba  speech 
between  the  Lubudi 
and  the  Sankuru  is 
allied  to  the  Balolo 
tongue  and  the 
Manyema  group. 
Physically  the  Ba- 
kuba aristocracy 
suggests  affinity  with 
the  Balimia  of  W est- 
63.  BAKUBA  AXES  OF  WROUGHT  IRON,  FROM  THE  sm  Uganda  and 
KASAi-sANKURu  consequcntly  with 

These  are  carried  before  a  chief  as  a  sign  of  authority  (Grenfell).    The        .  1  IT  •  .  • 

Bakuba  and  Baluba  are  great  ironworkers.  tUC      IiamitlC  ne" 

groids  of  the  Eastern 

Sudan.  The  present  habitat  of  the  Bakuba  is  the  region 
between  the  Sankuru,  Lubudi,  and  Lulua ;  though  isolated 
chieftainships  exist  east  of  the  Lubudi  and  between  the  Lulua 
and  the  Kasai  (Ndombe),  and  Grenfell  states  that  they  have 
pushed  westwards  along  the  main  Kasai  into  Yanzi  territory. 

The  Bakete  were  apparently  the  original  Bantu  race  of  the 
Sankuru-Lulua  almost-island,  extending,  however,  some  of  their 
settlements  south  of  the  Lulua.  They  are  a  dirty,  somewhat 
retrograde  people  who  have  seemingly  degenerated  from  a 
state  of  higher  civilization,  partly  owing  to  the  degree  to 
which  they  have  been  enslaved  by  the  Bakuba  and  Baluba 


THE  RIVERS  OF  CENTRAL  CONGOLAND  163 


chieftains.  Besides  the  Bakete,  there  would  seem  to  be  alonor 
the  south  bank  of  the  lower  Sankuru  and  on  the  north  bank  of 
the  Kasai,  above  the  Sankuru  confluence,  a  rather  Pygmy-like 
tribe  called  Bateke  {vide  p.  77). 

East  of  the  middle  Kasai,  south  of  the  lower  Lulua  and  of 
the  Lubefu,  west  of  the  Lomami  (though  extending  their 
influence  and  linguistic  connections  far  beyond  these  limits),  is 
the  domain  of  the  remarkable  Luba  peoples,  who  were  no 
doubt  fundamentally  connected  in  history  with  the  Lua  (Rua) 
and  Lunda  tribes  (and  even  the  Bakuba  caste).  The  range  of 
the  Luba  language  under  many  desig- 
nations and  in  many  dialects  extends 
from  the  Lukenye  River  on  the  north 
to  about  1 1°  30'  S.  Lat.  on  the  south, 
and  from  the  Loanje  River  and  the 
Kasai  on  the  west  to  the  Lualaba- 
Lufira  on  the  east.  The  Baluba  may 
have  been  originally  akin  to  the 
Bakuba — a  caste  of  Hamitico-neo-roid 
hunter-adventurers  who  invaded  the 
central  basin  of  the  Conoo  from  the 
east  or  north-east.  They  seem  to 
have  founded  the  empire  of  Lunda, 
the  commercial  (Imbangala)  colonies 
of  the  Kwango  River,  to  have  moulded 
the  warrior  tribe  of  the  Ba-kioko,  and 
to  have  created  powerful  monarchies 
here  and  there  between  the  Kasai, 
Sankuru,  and  Lake  Mweru.  In  the 
valley  of  the  Lulua  River  they  are  usually  known  as  the  Bcua 
Luhia ;  in  the  east  they  are  Barua;  elsewhere,  Turuba,  Bikenge, 
"  Moiyo,"^  Biomba,  Bakwalulua,  Bakwambuya,  etc. 

There  are,  however,  other  tribes  in  Lubaland  with  sufficient 
individuality  of  manners  or  dialect  to  be  separately  classified, 
though  in  reality  they  may  prove  (linguistically)  part  of  the 
Luba  confederation.  These  are,  for  example,  the  Kanyoka 
(Kanyika,  Kanyuka),  between  the  Lulua  and  the  middle 
Sankuru.  [These  people  have  the  distinction  of  being  first 
mentioned  (in  connection  with  the  Lualaba)  and  their  language 
inscribed  by  the  missionary  Sigismund  Koelle  in  1851."] 
There  are  the  Bambwe  and  the  Kalebwe  on  either  side  of 


b^.  A  SPECIMEN  OF  LUBA 

PO'lTERY 

A  water-cooler  from  Lulualjourg 
(Lulua  River). 


'  From  the  current  greeting  "  Moiyo,"  signifying  "  Life." 

^  From  a  Kanyoka  (Kanyika)  slave  who  was  released  by  the  British  cruisers 
and  landed  at  Sierra  Leone. 


i64  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


the  mid-Sankuru,  and  the  Ba-samba  (already  mentioned)  far 
to  the  south.  The  Kalunda  of  the  upper  Sankuru  are  prob- 
ably related  to  the  Lunda  people,  and  the  Babondo  of  the 
Luembe  River  to  the  Babunda  of  the  Kwilu  basin. 


The  Peace  (still  on  her  fourth  voyage)  after  depositing 

  .  Wissmann    on  the 

Lulua-Luebo  junction 
returned  to  Kwamouth 
on  the  main  Congo, 
and  then  steamed  up- 
river  to  the  Equator 
station  and  on  to  Stan- 
ley Falls.^ 

At  this  time  interest 
had  begun  to  revive  in 
Muta  Nzioe  or  the 
Beatrice  Gulf  of  Stan- 
ley's expedition  of 
1875-7.  In  1875  Stan- 
ley had  discovered 
Mount  Ruwenzori  (in 
an  imperfect  way), 
calling  it  Mount  Ed- 
win Arnold  and  guess- 
ing its  heioht  at  fifteen 
thousand  feet.  Near 
the  base  of  this  mighty 
mountain  mass,  the 
summits  of  which  were 
persistently  concealed 
by  cloud,  was  on  the 
east  the  shallow  oulf 
now  called  Lake 
Dweru.  This  was  con- 
nected by  a  narrow, 
winding  channel  with  the  Katwe  Bay  of  Lake  Albert  Edward. 
Stanley  had  believed  that  he  had  here  touched  a  great  lake  with 
several  arms  or  gulfs.  The  natives  oave  it  the  name  of  Muta 
Nzio-e,  which  like  the  Luta  Nzige  of  Lake  Albert  means  "the 


65.  CLOTH  OF  RAIDED  PILE  FROM  THE  BAKUBA 
COUNTRY  (SAXKURU  RIVER) 


'  Grenfell  repeatedly  notices  the  remarkable  change  of  the  flora  where  the  low, 
swampy  basin  of  the  main  Congo  suddenly  gives  place  to  a  rocky  formation  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  Stanley  Falls. 


THE  RIVERS  OF  CENTRAL  CONGOLAND  165 


killer  of  locusts,"  because  the  locust  flights  so  often  fell  from 
weariness  into  the  waters  and  were  drowned.  Until,  in  1890, 
Stanley  himself  had  revealed  to  the  world  the  shrunken  limits 
of  the  rechristened  Lake  Albert  Edward,  Muta  Nzige  with  its 
mysterious  affinities — ?  Congo  ?Nile  ?  Tanganyika — was  the 
goal  of  many  an  ambitious  young  explorer.  Grenfell  greatly 
longed  for  the  means  and  an  opportunity  to  go  thither.  Wiss- 
mann,  whom  he  had  just  set  down  on  the  Lulua,  intended  to 
make  for  Muta  Nzige  ;  and  Dr.  Lenz,  the  Austrian  explorer 
(whose  only  really  great  journey  was  one  made  from  Morocco 
to  Timbuktu  in  1880)  was  already  starting  from  the  Stanley 
Falls  in  that  direction  under  an  escort  of  Arabs. ^ 

In  his  diary  at  this  time  Grenfell  has  much  to  say  on  the 
statecraft  of  Tipu-Tipu,  who  had  been  installed  as  representa- 
tive of  the  Congo  Free  State  by  Stanley  himself.  Tipu-Tipu's 
lieutenants  sometimes  got  out  of  hand,  but  it  is  doubtful 
whether  but  for  the  Arab  rising  against  the  Germans  on  the 
east  and  the  growing  ambition  of  the  Belgians  on  the  west 
Stanley's  original  idea  of  an  Arab  state  in  the  eastern  half  of 
the  Congo  basin  under  Belgian  protection  was  a  bad  expedient. 
Of  course  it  served  the  purpose  later  of  the  Germans  and 
Belgians  and  even  of  the  British  to  paint  the  conduct  of  the 
Maskat  and  Zanzibar  Arabs  in  the  worst  light,  because  they 
were  undoubtedly  a  very  serious  rival  in  the  African  field, 
serious  inasmuch  as  after  the  preliminary  slave-raiding  and 
ravaging  they  were  less  exacting  in  their  demands  on  the 
natives.  They  introduced  a  stage  of  civilization  that  appealed 
peculiarly  to  the  negro  instincts,  and  devoted  themselves  with 
singular  assiduity  to  agriculture  of  a  very  practical  kind.  Nor 
were  the  arts  unrepresented.  Grenfell  and  others  allude  to  the 
beautiful  interior  decorations  of  the  Arab  mosques  in  towns  on 
the  Upper  Congo,  and  they  as  well  as  the  present  writer  have 
noted  the  artistic  carving  of  the  door-frames  and  the  doors  of 
the  dwelling-houses. 

The  State  at  this  time  was  represented  officially  by 
Mr.  Deane,  an  Englishman,  who  was  a  relative  of  Sir  Francis 
de  Winton  (then  Governor  of  the  Congo  Free  State).  Deane 
was  subsequently  killed — years  afterwards — by  a  buffalo.  At 
intervals  in  his  diary  Grenfell  writes  strongly  in  his  praise,  as 
being  one  of  the  bravest  men  he  has  ever  known,  and  a  very 

'  Lenz  soon  turned  back,  and  made  a  somewhat  humdrum  journey  instead 
across  Africa  down  the  already  known  course  of  the  Congo.  Wissmann  also  failed 
at  Nyangwe  and  Ujiji  to  organize  his  journey  to  Muta  Nzige  and  returned  liome  via 
Nyasaland. 


i66  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


worthy  representative  of  European  civilization.  In  1886  he 
had  to  keep  up  the  authority  of  the  Congo  Free  State  amongst 
the  turbulent  Arab  slave-traders  in  a  small  stockade,  with  only 
about  seventy  soldiers — half  Hausa  and  half  Bangala,  with  two 
Krupp  guns. 

On  this  journey  to  the  Falls  Grenfell  noted  with  pleasure 


60.   CONGO  J'lONEEKS 

Beginning  on  left,  lower  rank — Dr.  A.  Sims,  Grenfell,  Captain  Deane  ;  right  hand,  upper  rank — Michael 
Richards,  A.  Billington,  J.  G.  Brown. 


that  the  first  work  of  the  infant  Con^o  State  amonorst  the 
Aruwimi  (Basoko)  people — those  who  had  been  so  hostile  both 
to  Stanley  in  1877  and  to  Grenfell  himself  in  1884 — had  been 
most  advantageous.  These  people  were  now  perfectly  friendly, 
and  prepared  supplies  of  food  and  firewood  against  the  arrival 
of  steamers.  Much  surveying  work  was  done  by  Grenfell  on 
this  1886  journey  to  the  end  of  eastern  navigation  on  the 
Upper  Congo. 


THE  RIVERS  OF  CENTRAL  CONGOLAND  167 


On  his  return  to  Stanley  Pool  in  the  summer  of  1886, 
Grenfell  conferred  with  Captain  Bove  at  Brazzaville,  an  Italian 
officer  charged  with  the  inquiry  as  to  a  suitable  field  for  Italian 
emigration.  Belgian  prospects  at  this  time  were  not  very 
flourishing".  Sir  Francis  de  Winton  had  left  the  Congo  never 
to  return.  The  Acting  Governor  lived  at  Boma,  and  had  but 
little  influence  over  the  rest  of  his  colleaoues,  who  indulg-ed  in 
silly  quarrels  and  fought  duels. 

On  the  30th  of  September  Grenfell  started  away  again 
up-river  on  the  fifth  voyage  of  the  Peace,  taking  with  him 
a  number  of  Baptist  missionaries  to  be  placed  at  new  stations, 
and  also  giving  passages  to  officials  of  the  Congo  State.  It  was 
intended  on  this  occasion  to  explore  Lake  Leopold  II.  The 
steamer  passed  without  incident  up  the  Kwa  and  the  Mfini  or 
Lufini.    As  to  the  Mfini  River,  he  writes  in  October  1886  : — 

"  I  am  greatly  impressed  by  the  value  of  this  river.^  Its  current 
runs  about  75  to  100  feet  a  minute.  It  passes  by  gently  rolling  downs 
of  very  friable  soil,  with  plenty  of  people  (wealthy,  as  they  wear  lots  of 
brass  collars).  The  long,  low  foreshore  is  a  disadvantage  here  and  there, 
but  the  high  land  comes  down  at  certain  places  to  the  water's  edge. 
No  other  equal  length  of  waterway  that  I  know  has  so  many  people. 
Not  a  single  unfriendly  demonstration  as  yet.  The  villages  are  often 
perched  on  huge  anthills.  The  people  do  not  cicatrize  their  faces,  but 
tattoo  on  the  temples  the  circular  mark  within  a  ring  (the  'Saturn' 
mark).  The  women  are  slightly  marked  on  abdomen.  No  one  wears 
European  cloth  here.  Their  great  industry  (besides  making  pottery  of 
graceful  shapes)  is  reed-burning  for  the  extraction  of  salt.  We  were 
greatly  puzzled  at  first  as  to  the  object  of  the  huge  stacks  of  dry  reeds 
like  large  grass  dwellings  seen  from  a  distance.  Lot  of  crocodiles,  also 
pelicans,  herons,  sacred  ibis,  crowned  cranes,  and  the  like.  Plenty  of 
hippos  and  but  few  mosquitoes.  I  have  not  seen  the  millet  bread 
Stanley  speaks  of :  perhaps  the  wrong  season.  About  three  days' 
journey  up  the  Mfini  we  met  a  '  Kiyanzi  '-speaking  people  with  good 
tobacco  for  sale.  They  had  cicatrized  their  faces,  and  wore  graduated 
rings  round  the  neck.  Here  the  houses  are  built  in  streets  at  right 
angles  to  the  riverside." 

"October  15  '86.  We  reached  the  head  of  Lake  Leopold,  and  had 
quite  a  hostile  reception  at  the  hands  of  the  people,  who  assembled  to 
the  number  of  some  five  hundred  on  the  beach.  Twenty  or  thirty 
waded  out  into  the  water  up  to  their  waists,  threatening  us  with  spears 
and  bows  and  arrows.  They  were  encouraged  meantime  by  the  war 
dances  of  their  comrades  on  shore.  We  stayed  some  ten  minutes,  and 
then  put  the  steamer  round  and  steamed  off  without  having  come 
within  bowshot.    The  steam  whistle  produced  quite  a  panic,  and  drove 

'  In  a  later  passage  he  says  :  '"  The  highlands  of  the  Mfini  are  splendidly  promising. 
They  seem  to  me  to  be  among  the  finest  positions  I  have  seen  in  the  w  hole  central 
Congo  basin." 


i68   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


the  warriors  all  on  shore.  The  next  town  we  came  to  was  friendly,  as 
indeed  were  all  the  people  except  in  the  first  case.  We  were  able  to 
purchase  supplies  and  replenish  our  stores  of  fuel  with  the  abundance 
of  dried  wood  which  we  found  in  their  plantations.  The  fishing 
operations  which  are  carried  on  involve  an  immense  amount  of  labour. 
The  upper  bight  of  the  lake  is  for  some  square  miles  just  a  forest  of  fish- 
ing stakes,  through  which  we  had  had  great  difficulty  in  making  our 
way.  The  water  is  very  low  in  many  places.  We  had  only  three  or  four 
feet  for  miles  at  a  stretch.  The  marks  on  the  trees  indicate  the  flood- 
level  at  about  eight  feet  above  the  present. 

"  The  upper  end  of  Lake  Leopold  is  bounded  by  much  lower  shores 
than  the  south  end,  where  the  wooded  hills  run  from  fifty  to  two  hundred 
feet,  meeting  the  water's  edge  here  and  there  with  bold  descents.  The 

soil  on  top  of  the 
ferruginous  rock 
seems  to  be  very- 
rich  black  loam. 
The  points  that 
stretch  out  into  the 
water  are  very  acute, 
with  immense  de- 
tached boulders,  and 
long  sandy  beaches 
between  these  rocky 
points.  The  coast 
is  curiously  scal- 
loped. I  do  not 
think  there  is  any 
direct  communica- 
tion between  this 


67.  THE  "upside-down  FISH  " 

Euiropiits  laticeps,  from  Lake  Leopold  H,  where  it  sometimes  grows  to  a 
length  of  six  feet.    It  is  very  good  to  eat. 


lake   and  Lake 

Ntomba.^  The  people  on  the  Mfini  River  have  plenty  of  brass  (rods), 
while  the  lake  people  have  little  or  none.  The  strangest  thing  about 
these  folk  is  their  speaking  '  Kiyanzi '  or  a  dialect  somewhat  similar. 
Many  of  the  words  I  recognized  as  absolutely  the  same.  They  use  on 
the  open  waters  of  the  lake  large  'sea-going'  canoes  on  account  of  the 
rough  seas. 

"The  water  of  Lake  Leopold  II  is  very  dirty,  and  strongly  im- 
pregnated with  iron.  Those  wlio  bathe  in  it  have  to  carefully  wash 
afterwards  to  get  rid  of  the  rust. 

"  I  make  the  latitude  fully  ten  miles  south  of  Stanley's  position  by 
two  double  observations.  Can  Stanley  have  missed  a  day  in  his 
reckoning?    I  make  the  lake  quite  as  big  as  he  does.  .  .  ." 

On  the  16th  of  October  1886  the  Peace  started  at  six  in  the 
mornino-,  but  was  unable  to  tow  her  boat  alono-side  on  account 
of  the  heavy  rollers  on  the  open  water  of  the  lake,  and  the 
whale-boat  therefore  had  to  be  towed  astern  with  a  long  rope. 
The  waves  broke  over  the  Peace  and  threatened  to  swamp  her. 


This  was  afterwards  proved  by  Bentley's  journey  round  Ntomba  in  1887. 


THE  RIVERS  OF  CENTRAL  CONGOLAND  169 


Although  there  were  so  many  water-birds  on  the  Mfini,  very 
few  were  to  be  seen  on  Lake  Leopold.  Crocodiles  also  were 
less  numerous.  On  the  other  hand,  a  good  many  buffaloes 
came  down  to  drink  where  the  shore  was  low,  and  hippos  were 
abundant  on  these  rare  grassy  flats.  The  attacks  of  the 
hippopotami  on  this  voyage  were  most  audacious.  They 
rushed  at  the  Peace  again  and  again,  rose  out  of  the  water  and 
seized  the  bows  in  their  huore  mouths,  wrenching  off  some  of 
the  planking  round  the  gunwale.  Grenfell  was  repeatedly  wet 
through  with  the  splashing  made  by  these  monsters.  Those 
that  were  killed  furnished  meat  for  the  natives  on  board.  As 
on  the  Mfini  River, 
so  on  the  shores  of 
Lake  Leopold  II, 
where  the  land  was 
low  and  grassy 
the  natives  reared 
stacks  of  cut  ofrass 
or  reeds  for  burn- 
ing in  order  to 
make  salt  from  the 
potash. 

Grenfell  pre- 
dicts that  the  navi- 
o-ation  of  the  lake 
will  be  rendered 
dangerous  in  the  68.  head  of  hu'popotamus  shot  isy  (jkenkeli, 
seasons    of  high 

water  by  several  reefs  of  rocks.  As  there  is  no  visible  current, 
the  presence  of  these  will  be  concealed  when  they  are  covered 
with  water. 

After  leaving  Lake  Leopold  some  attention  was  given  to  the 
important  River  Lukenye.  Where  the  Lukenye  joins  the  Mfini 
and  the  waters  of  Lake  Leopold  it  is  250  yards  wide,  and  its 
current  flows  at  the  rate  of  172  feet  a  minute.  The  Lukenye 
rises  far  away  to  the  east,  only  a  few  miles  from  the  course  of 
the  Lomami.  It  flows  nearly  parallel  with  the  lower  course  of 
the  Sankuru-Kasai,  and  the  country  lying  between  it  and  this 
other  great  tributary  of  the  Congo  is  said  to  be  some  of  the 
finest  land  in  the  Conoo  Free  State. 

By  the  21st  of  October  1886  Grenfell  was  back  again  at 
Arthington,  and  for  some  days  afterwards  had  to  nurse  missionary 
colleagues  whose  fevers  gave  them  temperatures  of  105°. 

In  December  of  that  year  he  went  on  the  sixth  exploring 


lyo   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


voyage  of  the  Peace  with  Holman  Bentley  as  a  companion. 
They  explored  the  Kvvango  Ri\'er  from  the  Kasai  confluence 
to  the  Kingunji  Rapids  with  results  that  are  embodied  in  the 
earlier  part  of  this  chapter. 

Except  for  this  excursion  the  close  of  1886  was  spent  in 
working  out  his  observations  and  completing  his  great  chart  of 
the  river  from  Leopoldville  on  Stanley  Pool  to  the  Stanley  F"alls, 
together  with  his  explorations  of  the  upper  affluents.  His  chart 
was  made  on  the  scale  of  of  an  inch=  100  yards  (practically 
a  mile  to  the  inch),  and  the  sheets  of  the  chart  dealing  with  the 
main  Congo  when  placed  in  order  one  after  the  other  measured 
a  length  of  125  feet.^ 

Much  of  Grenfell's  preliminary  geographical  work  had  been 
published  by  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  in  October  1886, 
accompanied  by  his  notes.  In  1887  they  published  his  chart  of 
the  Congo  basin,  and  very  appropriately  awarded  to  him  in  that 
year  the  Founder's  Medal. 

'  Holinan  Bentley  thus  describes  Grenfell's  procedure  when  sur\'eying  from 
the  deck  of  the  Peace :  "  Hour  after  hour  on  those  long  journeys  Grenfell  stood 
behind  his  prismatic  compass,  taking  the  bearings  of  point  after  point  as  they 
appeared  ;  estimating  from  time  to  time  the  speed  of  the  steamer,  and  correcting  all 
the  work  as  occasion  offered  by  astronomical  observations.  When  the  steamer  was 
running  his  food  had  to  be  brought  to  him,  unless  in  some  straighter  run  towards  a 
distant  point  he  could  slip  away  for  a  few  minutes." 

Grenfell's  diaries  constantly  refer  to  his  night  vigils  for  taking  observations  of  the 
stars  from  the  satellites  of  Jupiter. 


CHAPTER  X 


TIMES  OF  UNCERTAINTY 

GRENFELL'S  fourth  term  of  residence  on  the  Congo 
had  lasted  exactly  four  years,  from  1883  to  1887. 
1883  had  been  spent  in  founding  mission  stations  and 
in  conveying  the  Peace  in  sections  to  Stanley  Pool  and  putting 
her  together.  1884,  1885,  and  1886  had  been  occupied  mainly 
in  the  great  explorations,  but  also  in  founding  mission  stations 
of  a  temporary  or  permanent  nature  at  the  Babangi  towns  of 
the  Upper  Congo.  In  February  1887  Grenfell  reached  England 
for  a  brief  holiday,  regaining  the  Congo  in  September. 

Whilst  he  was  resting-  from  his  labours  in  the  first  hall  of 
that  year,  Stanley  arrived  on  the  Lower  Congo  10  conduct  the 
Emin  Pasha  relief  expedition. 

In  order  to  reach  the  mouth  of  the  Aruwimi  as  quickly  as 
possible,  he  decided  in  a  somewhat  masterful  way  to  impress 
every  steamer  on  the  Upper  Congo,  amongst  them  the  Peace. 
Stanley  did  not  at  first  realize  that  the  Peace  was  necessary,  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  mission  stations  already  established  far 
away  from  Stanley  Pool.  However,  his  somewhat  peremptory 
language  soon  gave  way  to  a  milder  attitude.  He  promised 
not  to  detain  the  steamer  longer  than  absolutely  necessary,  and 
engaged  that  she  should  not  be  associated  with  warlike  opera- 
tions which  he  might  find  it  necessary  to  undertake.^ 

Amongst  other  things  Stanley  attempted  to  solve  for  a  time 
the  Arab  difficulty  by  establishing  Tipu-Tipu  as  Governor  for 
the  Congo  Independent  State  at  the  Stanley  Falls,  as  related  in 
the  last  chapter.  Deane,  the  Englishman  referred  to  so  often 
by  Grenfell  in  his  diaries,  had  been  attacked  by  the  Arabs,  and 
after  a  desperate  but  vain  defence  of  his  stockade  had  sought 
safety  in  flight.  He  had  managed  to  get  away  in  a  canoe  after 
runnino-  the  trauntlet  of  the  Arab  fire  from  the  banks. 

The  borrowing  of  the  Peace  on  the  part  of  Stanley  put  a 

1  "Stanley  kept  his  promise  and  there  was  nothing  whatever  to  prejudice  the 
Peace's  character."'  (Bentley.) 

171 


172   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


stop  for  some  time  to  further  Congo  exploration  by  the  Baptist 
missionaries,  though  Bentley  did  useful  geographical  work  over- 
land to  the  east  and  south  of  Stanley  Pool. 

Grenfell  had  noted  previously  the  following  information  as 
to  the  angle  of  country  between  the  lower  Kwango  and  the 
Congo,  especially  the  lands  lying  due  east  of  Stanley  Pool  ;  his 
information  being  partly  derived  from  a  German  explorer  Dr. 
Biittner,  who  travelled  over  this  region  in  1885.     Bentley  and 


69.  MAJOR  I5ARTTEL0T  AND  A  SECTION  OF  THE  EMIN  PASHA  RELIEF  EXPEDITION 
OFF  LUKOLELA,  UPPER  CONGO 


Biittner  described  it  as  a  high  level  tableland  (1,000  to  1,500  feet 
above  sea-level),  seamed  with  small  valleys  not  too  well 
supplied  with  water.^  Each  watering-place  had  a  village 
grouped  round  it,  and  as  a  rule  these  villages  and  supplies  of 
water  were  about  twenty  miles  apart.  Further  south,  in  the 
valley  of  the  Kwango,  the  country  of  the  Yaka  (Mayaka, 
Bayaka)  possessed  large  and  prosperous  towns  which  were 
centres  for  the  ivory  trade.    The  natives  told  Biittner  strange 

1  Biittner  stated  that  between  San  Salvador  and  the  Kwango  the  land  was  bare 
on  the  uplands  :  "  characteristic  red  clay  hills  and  gallery  forests  along  the  river 
banks."  Bentley  describes  the  valley  of  the  Ntsele  (which  enters  Stanley  Pool  at 
Kimpoko)  as  "about  five  miles  wide  and  i,ioo  feet  deep,"  tributary  streams  flowing 
through  other  gorges  much  narrower  but  nearly  as  profound,  with  the  cliff-sides 
clothed  in  black  forest  save  where  recent  landslips  displayed  bare  surfaces  of  gleaming 
white  sand. 


TIMES  OF  UNCERTAINTY 


173 


stories  of  a  race  of  men  in  the  hills  to  the  west  who  spoke  from 
their  arm-pits.  A  great  deal  of  cannibalism  was  saicl  to  linger 
(in  1885)  amongst  the  Bayaka.  In  fact,  Dr.  Biittner  saw  two 
slaves  killed  for  eating,  and  marvelled  at  their  apparent  in- 
sensibility. They  were  not  even  bound,  but  submitted  to 
execution  like  dumb,  senseless  brutes. 

In  the  summer  of  1887,  Holman  Bentley  accompanied  by 
his  wife  and  child,  with  the 
missionary  engineer  Char- 
ters^ in  command  of  the 
Peace,  made  a  steamer  jour- 
ney on  the  Upper  Congo 
for  the  purpose  of  exploring 
Lake  Mantumba  or  Ntomba. 
It  was  believed  then  that  this 
small  lake,  entered  from  the 
ConCTo  at  Ilebo,  comnmni- 
cated  by  creek  with  Lake 
Leopold  II.  If  this  were  the 
case  it  might  be  an  easier 
means  of  access  to  the  in- 
terior for  the  mission 
steamer.^  On  the  way  to 
Ntomba  they  called  at  the 
row  of  Babangi  towns  on  the 
east  bank  of  the  Congo 
known  as  Bolobo. 

The  Bolobo  district  in 
1 887  had  become  excessively 
hostile  towards  Europeans. 
The  temporary  station  of  the 
Congo  Free  State  had  been 
burnt  to  the  ground,  the  chief 

Ibaka  was  dead,  and  when  the  Peace  arrived  in  August,  with 
Bentley  on  board,  she  was  roughly  ordered  away.  Before 
sheering  off,  however,  an  idea  occurred  to  Bendey.  Taking- 
advantage  of  the  steamer's  halt,  his  wife  and  nurse  were  giving 

'  Charters  afterwards  became  a  doctor,  and  as  a  medical  missionary  went  out  to 
British  East  Africa,  where  he  lost  his  life  inexplicably  {vide  Bentley's  Pioneering  on  the 
Congo).  The  present  writer  believes  that  he  and  his  companion  fell  into  a  game  pit  and 
were  smothered  ;  that  was  the  story  told  to  him  by  natives,  a  few  years  after  Charters's 
death. 

2  Bentley  and  all  succeeding  travellers  down  to  a  few  years  ago  exaggerated  the 
size  and  importance  of  this  little  lake— a  mere  Congo  backwater.  Stanley,  its  dis- 
coverer, called  it  "Mantumba."  The  Belgian  authorities  write  the  name  "Tumba." 
Bentley's  "  Ntomba"  seems  to  be  the  usual  native  pronunciation. 


70. 


REV.  W.  HOLMAN  liENTLEY,  B.M.S.. 
Author  of  Kongo  Dictionary  and  Grammar. 


D.D. 


174   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


a  bath  to  the  Bentley  baby.  As  if  by  accident,  the  little  white 
child  was  held  up  in  view  of  the  angry  and  excited  people. 
Suddenly  a  hush  fell  on  the  assembly  of  armed  men,  gradually 
giving  way  to  a  shout  of  delighted  surprise. 

A  few  minutes  afterwards,  in  response  to  urgent  invitations 
to  come  on  shore,  the  Bentley  baby  in  a  dainty  white  dress  was 
being  paraded  through  the  town,  nursed  and  dandled  by 
warrior  after  warrior  till  his  snowy  frock  was  reddened  with 
camwood  dye  or  stained  with  greasy  black  marks  from  those 
who  had  covered  their  bodies  with  oil  and  soot  in  token  of 
mourning.  Mrs.  Bentley  w^as  equally  an  object  of  interest  and 
admiration,  as  she  was  the  first  white  woman  that  had  appeared 
in  these  regions.  Up  to  that  time  the  white  man  had  been 
looked  upon  as  a  sort  of  unnatural  creature  that  was  not  bred 
and  born  like  ordinary  human  beings — a  semi-supernatural 
being  without  a  mate.  The  Bentley  baby  practically  created 
the  Baptist  mission  station  of  Bolobo,  which  has  endured  for 
so  many  years,  and  which  was  to  be  Grenfell's  principal  resi- 
dence from  1888  till  1906. 

After  stopping  at  llebo  [which  in  those  days  was  a  group  of 
eight  or  ten  towns  of  Babangi  people,  separated  each  from  the 
other  by  tall  fences  of  glossy-leaved  dracaenas]  the  mission 
party  steamed  into  Lake  Ntomba.  The  missionaries  were  again 
objects  of  distrust.  They  were  non-human,  spirits — and  spirits 
of  evil.  Already,  by  1887,  the  white  man  was  becoming  un- 
popular on  the  Upper  Congo.  In  some  districts  he  was  a 
minister  of  justice,  punishing  the  evil-doer.  He  was  disliked 
as  a  Liberal,  as  one  who  was  breaking  up  the  bad  old  customs. 
Elsewhere  the  white  agent  or  explorer  was  unscrupulous  and 
harsh,  and  his  Swahili  or  Hausa  soldiers  abused  their  positions 
and  laid  violent  hands  on  women  or  food  supplies.  At  lyanja 
Bentley  was  asked,  "Why  do  you  spirits  always  trouble  us? 
You  are  not  good.  Our  people  die,  so  do  our  goats  and  fowls  ; 
our  farms  do  not  produce  as  they  should,  sickness  and  trouble 
come,  and  you  are  the  cause.  .  .  .  Why  do  you  not  let  us 
alone  ?  "  ^ 

1  This  last  phrase  was  used,  even  as  early  as  1883,  to  the  author  of  this  book 
when  visiting  similar  regions  on  the  Upper  Congo.  "  Let  us  alone  :  our  customs  may 
be  bad  in  your  eyes,  but  let  us  alone.  Stop  in  your  country  as  we  stop  in  ours." 
They  had  not  grasped  one  underlying  principle  of  the  martyrdom  of  man,  that  our 
much-suffering  genus  never  has  been  let  alone  since  it  diverged  from  the  anthropoid 
ape.  It  has  been  chastened  by  glacial  periods — or,  at  any  rate,  this  has  been  the 
agency  that  has  shaped  the  industrious  Asiatic  [or  European.  The  Negro  and  the 
Australian  may  have  escaped  the  trials  of  an  Ice  Age,  only  now  to  be  plagued 
instead  by  their  Caucasian  or  Mongolian  brothers,  who  will  not,  cannot  let  them 
alone. 


TIMES  OF  UNCERTAINTY 


175 


Bentley  again  pointed  out  that  according  to  their  own  show- 
ing spirits  could  not  marry  and  have  children,  and  proved  his 
flesh-and-blood  kinship  with  them  by  the  production  of  his  wife 
and  child.  It  was,  however,  by  no  means  conclusive  to  the 
natives  that  a  spirit  might  not  mingle  with  humanity  and  pro- 
create. Still,  to 
a  ofreat  extent 
their  confidence 
was  won. 

He  describes 
the  people  of 
Lake  Ntomba 
as  very  different 
from  the  Ba- 
banoi  of  the 
Congo  shore. ^ 
Their  type  of 
face  resembled 
the  Babuma  of 
the  south  end  of 
Lake  Leopold  ; 
but  curiously 
enough,  they 
wore  cloth 
identical  with 
that  made  in  the 
Kasai  region, 
the  "  pile  cloth  " 
like  buff-colour- 
ed velvet,  which 
is  made  of  the 
fibre  of  the 
raphia  palm. 
They  were 
armed  with 

bows,  arrows,  and  spears,  but  had  very  few  shields. 

One  feature  of  the  eastern  shore  of  a  remarkable  character 
was  the  extraordinary  abundance  of  gum  copal.  This  resin 
flows  from  a  papilionaceous  tree,  a  species  of  Copaifera,  Trachy- 
lobium  or  Guibourtia.  It  is  very  light,  and  floats  readily  in 
water.    The  copal  gum  which  drops  from  the  trees  round  Lake 


71.  CLOTH  OF  RAISED  PILE  FROM  NTOMBA  DISTRICT 


'  Lord  Mountmorres,  visiting  the  eastern  shores  of  Ntomba  in  1905,  noticed  the 
pygmy  hunters  who  penetrated  thither  from  the  east,  and  who  were  known  as  Biia 
by  the  other  tribes. 


176   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Ntomba  at  flood  time  is  blown  by  the  prevailing  wind  to  the 
east  shore  of  the  lake.  Here  (according  to  Bentley)  the  beach 
and  ground  are  composed  entirely  of  copal,  leaves,  and  drift- 
wood. "  The  sand  and  pebbles  are  all  of  copal.  I  saw  nothing 
else,  even  in  the  hollows." 

The  water  of  Lake  Ntomba,  like  that  of  Leopold  II,  is 
very  dark  rusty-red  in  colour.  Its  shores  are  all  iron-stone, 
with  rocky  points,  scooped-out  shallow  bays,  and  a  few  small 
islands.  The  lake  seems  to  be  shallow-  as  a  general  rule, 
and  the  shores  are  flat.  One  of  Bentley 's  objects  was  to 
ascertain  if  there  was  water  communication  between  Mantumba 
and  Lake  Leopold  II.  He  followed  up  for  a  few  miles  several 
creeks  leading  towards  the  River  Busira,  but  arrived  at  the 
conclusion  that  except  in  high  flood  time  it  would  be  impossible 
to  pass  from  Ntomba  either  to  the  great  lake  in  the  south  or  to 
the  Ruki- Busira.  As  the  water  of  Ntomba  rises  about  ten 
feet  in  the  height  of  the  rainy  season,  it  may  occur  that  at  that 
time  of  the  year  the  two  lakes  nearly  merge.  Grenfell  states 
at  a  later  date  that  the  Ntomba  water  flows  westward  into  the 
main  Congo. 

By  the  autumn  of  1887  Grenfell  returned  from  his  holiday 
in  England  and  had  reached  the  new  Arthinq-ton  station  at 
Stanley  Pool  in  January  1888.  A  great  disaster  had  happened 
to  this  station  (then  the  Grenfells'  home)  in  the  summer  of 
1886.  Whilst  the  Peace  was  up-river,  Bateke  people,  burning 
the  grass  in  the  dry  season,  had  accidentally  started  a  bush 
fire  near  Leopoldville  which  destroyed  all  Arthington  station 
except  two  dwelling-houses,  entailing  the  loss  not  only  of  the 
mission  property,  but  of  the  private  effects  of  Grenfell  and 
five  of  his  colleaoues — the  whole  loss  beino"  estimated  at 
^3,000.  Already  Arthington  had  been  found  to  be  incon- 
veniently situated  for  navigation,  as  it  was  so  close  to  the  first 
rapids  of  the  Lower  Congo.  Measures  had  been  taken  a  year 
or  so  before  to  obtain  new  quarters  at  Nshasa,  on  the  south 
shore  of  Stanley  Pool  ;  and  after  the  fire,  "  old  "  Arthington 
was  abandoned  and  the  name  transferred  to  the  mission  settle- 
ment at  Nshasa. 

Soon  after  Grenfell's  return  to  the  Conoo  in  the  autumn  of 

o 

1887  it  was  decided  that  the  headquarters  of  the  Peace  and 
the  river  transport  service  in  general  of  the  Baptist  Mission  on 
the  Upper  Congo  should  be  transferred  from  Arthington  on 
Stanley  Pool  to  Bolobo,  beyond  the  confluence  of  the  Kwa. 

All  through  the  years  that  followed  the  settlement  of  Euro- 
peans at  Stanley  Pool  in  1882  immense  difficulties  had  to  be 


TIMES  OF  UNCERTAINTY 


177 


encountered  in  the  way  of  food  supply.  The  population  on  the 
southern  shores  of  Stanley  Pool  was  not  a  very  abundant  one, 
and  the  Europeans  soon  ate  up  all  the  available  fowls,  pigs, 
goats,  and  sheep.  Very  often  they  had  to  live  on  "kwanga,"  a 
sour,  unappetizing  dough  made  of  the  manioc  root.  Kwanga 
was  very  often  only  eatable  by  having  it  toasted  or  fried  till  it 
was  quite  burnt,  in  order  to  get  rid  of  the  gluey,  sour  taste. 
Fish  could  sometimes  be  obtained  from  the  native  fishermen. 


72.  PREPARED  MANIOC  ROOTS  ("KWANGA")  AND  SUGAR-CANE 
(A  school  feast  on  the  Upper  Congo.) 


but  as  often  as  not  it  was  smoked  fish.  This  might  have  been 
kept  for  a  long  time  in  a  native  hut,  and  be  full  of  maggots. 
There  was  very  little  game  ;  altogether,  the  region  of  Stanley 
Pool,  and  especially  the  vicinity  of  Leopoldville,  was  not  a  happy 
place  of  residence  in  the  'eighties.^  Two  hundred  and  thirty 
miles  of  difficult  and  wearisome  travel  connected  it  with  the  base 
on  the  lower  river,  which  could  be  reached  by  ocean  steamers. 

'  The  Bateke  people  who  inhabited  tlie  country  round  the  south-western  shores 
of  Stanley  Pool  (chiefly  at  two  great  congeries  of  villages,  Ntanio  or  Kintamo  and 
Nshasa  or  Kinshasa)  were  never  well  disposed  towards  the  European.  The  well- 
known  chief  of  Ntamo  (Leopoldville)  was  Ngalienia,  the  capricious  friend  of  Stanley. 
This  individual,  like  Ibaka  and  other  riverain  Congo  chiefs,  began  life  as  a  slave  to  a 
Bateke  chief,  bought  for  one  plate  !  He  was  astute  in  commerce  and  so  enriched 
himself  over  the  ivory  trade.  With  his  wealth  he  bought  guns  and  gunpowder  from 
the  Bakongo  traders  and  became  an  independent  chief,  at  first  much  courted  and 
I. — N 


178   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Supplies  brought  over  these  two  hundred  and  thirty  miles  by 
boat  or  steamer  and  by  porters  were  expensive  ;  moreover,  the 
recruitment  of  native  porters  was  a  matter  of  uncertainty,  and 
goods  would  be  stranded  for  weeks  or  months  at  Manyanga, 
midway  in  the  cataract  region.  The  completion  of  the  railway 
in  the  'nineties  of  course  altered  these  circumstances.  Now, 
one  is  surprised  that  the  state  capital  of  the  Congo  is  not  on 
Stanley  Pool,  instead  of  at  Boma — utterly  out  of  touch  with 

the  vast  central 
basin  of  the 
Congo,  though 
in  direct  steam 
^  ^^^^^  communication 

0^'^~''  -^^^^^^L.  Europe  and 

f_  IWI^W       the  rest  of  the 

world. 

.iS^  Grenfell  ac- 

cordingly,  to  es- 
cape the  misery 
of  intermittent 
starvation,  em- 
ployed the  spring 

73-  CITHARINUS  CONGICUS,  A  FISH  MtXH  EATEX  BV  THE    of  I  888  in  found- 

inor  the  new  sta- 
tion   at  Bolobo, 
which  was  after- 
wards to  become  his  home  for  many  years. 

Whilst  still  residing  at  Arthington  (Nshasa)  Grenfell  in  his 
spare  moments  sketched  out  an  African  romance  which  he 
would  write  some  day  (but  apparently  never  did). 

"  I  have  been  thinking  that  the  history  of  a  pair  of  tusks  would 
make  a  very  interesting  topic  for  an  African  romance.  The  elephant 
shall  be  killed  in  some  pitfall  or  by  poisoned  arrows  in  the  very 
heart  of  Africa.  There  shall  be  a  description  of  the  happy  family 
life  of  the  hunter  who  secured  the  tusks.  One  of  these  tusks  will  be 
sold  to  native  traders  for  brass  collars.  They  take  it  down  to  the 
Congo — vicissitudes  of  canoe  voyage — tusk  sometimes  hidden  in  the 
river  sand — fights — blood-brotherhood — tusk  bargained  for,  fought  for, 
wrangled  about,  traded  away  at  Stanley  Pool,  then  the  land  transport 
to  the  European  factories  on  the  West  Coast,  etc.  etc.    Again,  an  Arab 


N.\TIVES  OF  STANLEY  POOL  AND  THE  UPPER  CONGO 

(This  species,  about  twelve  to  fifteen  inches  long,  is  smoked,  and  becomes  an 
important  article  in  native  commerce).  Its  name,  and  that  of  the  other 
Citharini,  b  Loboko  among  the  Bayanzi. 


enriched  by  Stanley  s  expeditions  in  the  Congo  State.  But  his  people  cared  nothing 
for  agriculture  and  hindered  all  the  State's  efforts  at  improving  the  local  food  supply. 
After  several  attempts  at  futile  risings  the  remnant  of  tlie  South-Stanley-Pool  Bateke 
returned  to  the  lands  north  of  Stanley  Pool,  from  which  they  had  come.  The  sites  of 
their  towns  are  now  flourishing  plantations. 


TIMES  OF  UNCERTAINTY 


179 


raid,  the  hunter's  wife  is  carried  off  to  be  a  slave.  The  hunter  takes  the 
other  tusk  from  his  store  and  redeems  his  wife  from  the  Arab  captor. 
Then  a  description  of  the  overland  journey  to  Zanzibar,  the  slave 
transport,  etc.  etc.  As  likely  as  not  both  tusks  may  meet  in  the  auction 
room  at  the  London  Docks."  ^ 

During  July  1888  terrible  stories  reached  Grenfell  and 
other  persons  residing  at  Stanley  Pool  (through  the  return- 
ing members  of  the  Emin  Pasha  relief  expedition,  Belgian 
officials  and  others)  as  to  events  connected  with  the  rearguard 
of  Stanley's  expedition  at  the  mouth  of  the  Aruwimi  and  on 
the  Upper  Congo.  The  only  excuse  for  touching  on  this 
painful  matter  is  the  fact  that  these  stories  are  recorded  by 
Grenfell  in  the  summer  of  1888,  whereas  they  were  not  pub- 
lished to  the  world  by  Stanley  himself  until  1891.  It  is 
perhaps  better  not  to  rake  up  the  memory  of  these  doings, 
though  it  is  necessary  to  say  that  Grenfell  in  his  private  diary 
records  evidence  taken  down  from  eye-witnesses,  and  that  some 
of  his  stories  or  details  are  more  sensational  than  what  has 
been  made  known.  He  himself  felt  the  shame  of  these  deeds 
having  been  committed  or  permitted  by  Englishmen,  and  this 
remembrance  perhaps,  amongst  other  considerations,  should 
temper  our  denunciations  of  other  nationalities. 

On  the  31st  of  August  1888  Grenfell  notes  down  a  long 
interview  with  Herbert  Ward,  according  to  whom  if  the 
Arabs  detailed  by  Tipu-Tipu  to  assist  Stanley's  expedition 
had  not  behaved  loyally  after  the  death  of  Major  Barttelot, 
Jamieson  and  Bonny  would  also  have  been  killed  by  the 
Manyema,  and  nothing  would  have  been  left  in  personnel  or 
stores  of  the  rearguard  expedition.  "The  Arabs  were  a 
never- w^anting  bodyguard  day  and  night."  On  the  other  hand, 
he  states  that  Tipu-Tipu  was  asking  an  additional  ^20,000  for 
leading  a  relief  expedition  to  save  Emin  Pasha  and  Stanley, 
via  Nyangwe  and  Unyoro. 

With  regard  to  events  at  San  Salvador  since  the  Portuguese 
had  established  their  protectorate  over  the  kingdom  of  Kongo, 
Grenfell  describes  in  his  diary  (1888)  the  well-meant  attempts 
of  a  certain  bishop  to  establish  monogamy  in  this  region  by  in- 
ducing the  King  of  San  Salvador  to  become  the  husband  of 
one  wife  and  then  to  present  himself  for  baptism.  Unfor- 
tunately, the  wife  chosen  was  already  betrothed  to  another  man, 

'  Most  of  these  "suggestions"  are  found  together  at  one  place  in  Grenfell's 
diary,  in  June  12  1888.  Other  allusions  to  this  crop  up  later  on.  P'or  the  reader's 
convenience  I  have  put  them  together. 


i8o   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


and  both  parties  were  unwilling  to  forego  marriage  in  order 
that  the  woman  might  become  the  single  spouse  of  the  King  of 
Kongo.  Just  as  the  marriage  was  to  take  place  the  queen- 
elect  bolted  with  her  lover.  The  forty  pre-existing  queens  of 
Kongo  raised  a  great  clamour  at  being  disbanded.  However, 
inducements  were  offered  to  them  to  depart,  to  the  runaway  to 
return,  and  at  length  the  wedding  took  place.    The  new  queen 


74.  HERBERT  WARD  AND  HIS  .SECTION  OF  THE  E.MIX  PAbHA  EXTEDITIOX  OX 
THE  CONGO  IN  CANOES 


had  consented  to  break  off  her  other  engagement  on  the  condi- 
tion  that  she  was  married  in  a  bonnet  and  dress  of  yellow  silk, 
in  yellow  shoes  and  stockings.  The  aged  king  was  wheeled 
to  his  wedding  in  a  Bath  chair  borrowed  from  a  European. 

At  a  later  date,  however,  Grenfell  and  Bentley  write  frankly 
and  even  gratefully  on  the  subject  of  the  Portuguese,  declaring 
that  they  had  been  not  only  fair,  but  kind  to  the  Baptist 
Mission  ;  that  they  had  established  security  on  the  trade  routes, 
and  had  not  unduly  oppressed  the  natives.  They  had  done  all 
this,  moreover,  with  a  remarkably  small  show  of  force. 

When  the  old  King  of  San  Salvador  died  in  1891,  the 


TIMES  OF  UNCERTAINTY 


people  were  allowed  to  elect  a  successor  in  the  person  of 
Mfutila,  the  late  king's  nephew/  Mfutila  attempted  to  sig- 
nalize his  assumption  of  the  kingly  office  by  acts  of  rapine, 
and  amongst  other  thinQs  decided  to  lure  the  Portuouese 
Resident  into  leaving  the  fort  and  coming  to  a  council  of  chiefs, 
at  which  it  would  be  easy  to  assassinate  him.  The  small  garri- 
son of  native  soldiers 
could  then  be  over-  i  "  iUWH^^^ 
come  and  Portuo  uese 
rule  driven  out  of  the 
country. 

The  Resident, 
however,  was  a  Por- 
tuguese type  worthy 
of  the  old  days  of  the 
conquistadores.  He 
had  only  about  ten 
soldiers  at  his  station, 
but  acted  as  thouoh 

o 

he  was  master  of  the 
situation,  declined  to 
gro  out  to  meet  the 
chiefs  (since  such  was 
not  the  custom  of  the 
representative  of  Por- 
tugal), but  would  be 
very  happy  to  receive 
them  at  his  Resi- 
dency, promising-  to 
keep  his  soldiers  in 
barracks  whilst  they 
were  there.'  The 
chiefs  accepted  the 
Resident's  invitation,  and  came  with  a  thousand  men  arme  d 
with  guns.  The  Resident  invited  them  to  spread  their 
mats  in  the  shade  and  state  their  case.  Whilst  waiting  for 
a  spokesman,  one  of  the  men   in  wriggling  about  pressed 

1  Mfutila  died  in  1896,  and  was  succeeded  by  the  present  king,  Dom  Henrique. 

^  Bentley  records  of  the  same  Resident  the  following  anecdote.  Soon  after  he 
arrived  at  San  Salvador,  the  chief  of  one  of  the  large  Congo  towns  sent  him  two 
bullets  (the  ordinary  declaration  of  war),  and  the  message  that  he  was  going  to 
attack  him  in  two  days'  time.  The  Resident  replied  that  it  would  be  an  excellent 
plan  thus  to  try  conclusions,  and  sent  the  chief  two  barrels  of  powder,  inquiring  at 
the  same  time  whether  he  had  a  sufficient  number  of  guns.  The  warlike  chief  was 
so  disconcerted  that  he  returned  the  powder,  lest  it  should  be  subsequently  charged 
for  at  trade  rates,  and  stated  he  had  no  intention  of  fighting. 


75- 


MFUTILA,  THE  LATE  KING.OF  KONGO,  SUCCEEDED 
HIS  F.\THER  AT  SAN  SALVADOR  IN  1 892 


i82   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


the  trigger  of  his  loaded  gun.  It  went  off,  and  the  man 
sittino-  next  to  him  was  shot  through  the  arm.  In  another 
minute  there  was  a  terrific  cloud  of  dust  caused  by  the 
bolting  of  the  chiefs  and  their  men.  When  this  cloud  was 
blown  away  there  only  remained  on  the  scene  the  Resident  and 
the  wounded  man,  who  was  handed  over  to  the  Baptist  Mission 
for  treatment.  Subsequently  the  Portuguese  Resident  induced 
the  chiefs  and  their  following  to  reassemble,  and  dismissed 
them  after  a  wise  discourse  on  the  necessity  in  their  affairs  for 
good  government. 


76.  CHIEKS  AND  NOBLEMEN  AT  SAN  SALVADOR,  KINGDOM  OF  KONGO 


Since  that  time  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Kongo  and  the  work 
of  the  Baptist  and  the  Catholic  Missions  therein  has  continu- 
ously prospered  under  Portuguese  rule,  to  the  enrichment  of 
the  natives  quite  as  much  as  to  the  advantage  of  I^uropean 
commerce.  The  testimony  of  Grenfell  and  Bentley  might  be 
borne  in  mind  by  those  who  are  obliged  to  criticize  the  work  of 
Portugal  elsewhere  in  Africa. 

Nevertheless,  Grenfell  wrote  in  his  diary  on  April  11  1S86 
(when  steaming  up  the  Lulua  River)  :  "  Last  night  Lieut. 
Wissmann  gave  me  a  terrible  indictment  of  Portuguese  rule  in 
(inner)  Angola."  This  referred  chiefly  to  the  entrusting  of 
responsible  positions  and  power  to  negro  officials  who  abused 


TIMES  OF  UNCERTAINTY 


185 


their  positions  in  the  Kwango  district  to  carry  on  an  active 
slave  trade  with  the  Luba  countries  in  order  to  send  labourers 
to  the  Sao  Thome  plantations.  "The  labourers  never  return." 
"The  Angolan  sugar  plantations  are  notoriously  unhealthy  ;  of 
eighty  Baluba  sold  to  one  plantation  only  four  were  left  three 
years  later."  The  white  convicts  sent  as  soldiers  or  colonists 
to  the  Kwango  region  "were  a  disgrace  to  Portugal;  they  were 
clad  like  natives  .  .  .  would  beg  for  a  little  cloth  from  any 
European  traveller  they  might  meet  .  .  .  and  their  conduct 
towards  the  natives  was  often  abominable." 

But  in  1886-7  Portugal  took  her  duties  more  seriously. 
Officers  of  distinction  like  Henrique  de  Carvalho  replaced  the 
previously  inferior  type  of  official  ;  convicts  were  no  longer 
despatched  to  regions  of  the  interior  where  their  actions  could 
not  be  controlled  ;  and  although  the  recruitment  of  labourers  or 
apprentices  for  the  cacao  plantations  of  Sao  Thome  still  con- 
tinues, it  is  at  any  rate  a  system  directly  carried  on  by  respon- 
sible government  officials,  and  although  criticizable  in  many 
aspects,  it  is  not  so  bad  as  the  disgraceful  slave  trade  which  still 
existed  in  Angola  as  late  as  1885  and  which  kept  all  south- 
central  Congoland  seething  with  civil  war,  rapine,  razzias,  and 
revenges. 

After  the  departure  from  the  Congo  and  the  Aruwimi  of  the 
Emin  Pasha  relief  expedition  in  1889,  the  Arab  attitude  towards 
the  Congo  Independent  State  became  insolent  and  threaten- 
ing. There  was  a  Belgian  "Resident"  (M.  de  Saint  Marcq) 
at  the  Court  of  Tipu-Tipu  [Kasongo],  but  he  and  his  secretary 
became  at  last  little  more  than  hostages  for  the  immobility 
of  the  State.  The  Commandant  of  Stanleyville  (?Van  de 
Velde)^  dared  not  oppose  the  Arabs  ordering  up  ammunition 
and  guns  even  from  the  west  coast,  by  the  trading  steamers 
of  the  Dutch  company.  Tipu-Tipu  threatened  at  intervals 
to  come  down  with  a  fleet  of  canoes  and  attack  Leopold- 
ville  ;  but  early  in  1890,  for  health  or  other  reasons,  he  deemed 
it  prudent  to  retire  to  Zanzibar.  He  was  succeeded  by  a 
kind  of  duumvirate — his  son  Sefu,  and  an  old  Arab  on  the 
Lomami  named  Mohara.  Soon  afterwards  the  Manyema  allies 
of  the  Arabs  began  to  attack  Belgian  outposts  or  expeditions. 

In  June  1890  the  representative  of  the  Congo  Free  State  at 

'  He  was  supported  later  by  the  Austrian  officer,  Lehrmann  (afterwards  com- 
manding the  military  escort  of  the  Lunda  expedition).  Of  him,  at  Stanley  Falls 
Grenfell  writes  on  the  24th  May  1890:  "Lehrmann  is  really  the  right  man  in  the 
right  place,  and  has  created  a  great  impression  by  putting  one  of  the  big  Arabs  in 
prison." 


i86   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Stanley  Pool  seized  the  Peace  by  force  and  impressed  her  into 
the  service  of  the  State  to  take  part  in  the  now  threatened  war 
against  the  Arabs.  One  representative  of  the  Mission  was 
allowed  to  remain  on  board,  partly  in  charge  of  the  machinery, 
but  the  Peace  was  sent  away  from  Stanley  Pool  to  Lusambo  on 
the  Sankuru  loaded  with  ammunition.  The  enforced  service 
of  the  mission  steamer  was  stated  to  have  saved  the  political 
situation  in  south-central  Congoland,  and  the  State  was  enabled 
to  make  headway  against  the  Arabs.  But  the  Mission  not 
unnaturally  resented  being  thus  mixed  up  with  the  wars — 
just  or  unjust — that  the  State  conducted  on  its  own  responsi- 
bility. A  protest  was  made  at  Brussels  ;  all  monetary  com- 
pensation for  the  seizing  of  the  steamer  was  refused,  but  the 
assurances  of  the  State  were  accepted  with  good  grace  that  no 
such  incident  would  be  allowed  to  occur  aoain.^ 

Grenfell  had  been  repeatedly  very  ill  with  fever  during 
1889  and  1890.  He  was,  moreover,  much  upset  at  the 
seizure  of  the  steamer,  and  left  for  England  at  the  end 
of  1890  to  lodge  a  protest,  and  also  to  make  better  arrange- 
ments regarding  upper  river  transport.  The  expansion  of 
the  Mission,  and  the  dangrer  of  the  mission  stations  beingr 
left  without  supplies,  made  the  sending  out  of  a  second 
steamer  imperative.  Consequently,  during  1891  a  new  vessel, 
the  Goodxvill — a  larger  steamer  than  the  Peace — was  con- 
structed on  the  Thames,  and  was  brought  out  by  Grenfell  at 
the  end  of  that  year.  She  was  launched  on  the  Upper  Congo 
in  December  1893.  The  entire  work  of  her  reconstruction 
was  carried  out  by  African  artisans,  and  by  this  time  it  had 
been  found  possible  to  work  not  only  the  steamers  of  the 
Baptist  Mission  but  those  of  other  agencies  entirely  by  natives 
of  the  Upper  Congo,  most  of  whom  had  received  their  first 
training  on  the  Peace.  The  well-known  mission  engineer, 
Bungudi,  the  son  of  a  chief  living  in  the  vicinity  of  Stanley 
Pool,  had  resided  at  Chiswick  for  nearly  a  year,  taking  part  in 
the  construction  of  the  new  steamer. 

1  My  version  of  this  incident  is  not  considered  by  Grenfell's  colleagues  to  meet 
the  case.  It  has  been  pointed  out  to  me  that  Grenfell  had  offered  at  this  time  to 
make  two  trips  to  the  Sankuru  with  ordinary  stores,  but  that  he  flatly  refused  to  have 
the  mission  steamer  employed  on  any  war  service.  The  State  at  this  juncture  had 
two  steamers  of  its  own  available,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Baptist  mission 
stations  on  thf  Upper  Congo  were  "in  peril  through  lack  of  supplies."  Grenfell 
seems  to  have  esented  this  action  deeply  as  an  abuse  of  local  authority  and  an 
attempt  to  implicate  the  mission  in  all  the  features  of  the  State  policy,  good  or  bad. 


CHAPTER  XI 


THE  LUNDA  EXPEDITION 


THE  Arab  occupation  of  all  eastern  Congoland  had 
deflected  Belgian  energies  between  1886  and  1890  into 
the  basin  of  the  Kasai.  This  wonderful  river  system 
would  enable  them  eventually  to  take  the  Arabs  in  flank. 
Meantime  it  was  im{)ortant  not  to  clash  with  the  claims  ot 
Portugal,  and  therefore  to  establish  as  definitely  as  possible 
the  boundaries 
between  An- 
oola  and  the 
Congo  Inde- 
pendent State. 

It  was  per- 
haps because 
of  the  judicious 
attitude  which 
Grenfell  and 
other  Baptist 
missionaries 
had  adopted 
towards  the 
Portuguese  in 
the  settlement 
of  Congo  ques- 
tions [as  well 
as  towards 
the  Belsi'ian, 
French,  and 
German  e  x  - 
plorers  —  any- 
one, in  short, 
who  was  at- 
tempting to 

develop    the  c,^px,\i>j  gorin  riding  an  ox  (j\  mi:  lunma 

Cono-o    reyion  expedition 

1S7 


i88   GEORGR  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


on  right  lines]  that  the  King  of  the  Belgians  as  Sovereign  of  the 
Congo  Independent  State  appointed  George  Grenfell  to  be  his 
Commissioner  in  1891  for  the  delimitation  of  the  boundary  in  the 
western  Congo  basin  between  Portucxal  and  the  Conoo  Stale. 

After  a  holiday  in  England  during  1891,  occu[)ied  with  the 
designs  for  the  new  steamer,  Grenfell  reached  the  Congo  in 
December  of  that  year.  But  various  delays  occurred  in  con- 
nection with  the  Portuguese  Commissioners,  and  it  was  not 
until  the  loth  of  May  1902  that  the  Belgian  (Congolese)  section 
under  the  civil  command  of  Grenfell  left  Matadi  on  the  Lower 
Congo.  He  was  accompanied  by  Captain-Commandant  Gorin 
and  M.  Froment.  Strict  orders  had  been  griven  from  Brussels 
and  Lisbon  that  the  expedition  was  to  be  a  pacific  one,  even  if 
attempts  to  ward  off  fighting  should  cause  delay.  The  Com- 
missioners were  instructed  that  it  was  preferable  that  they 
should  spend  a  longer  time  over  their  task  (collecting  as  much 
geographical  information  as  possible)  than  incur  hostilities  by 
rushing  ahead  heedless  of  obstacles  and  of  native  suspicions. 
Apparently  for  this  reason,  Grenfell's  portion  of  the  expedition, 
which  was  to  meet  the  Portuguese  continoent  on  the  Kwanoo 
River,  pursued  a  somewhat  deviating  course  in  their  eastward 
journey.  The  railway  to  Stanley  Pool  not  yet  being  con- 
structed for  any  distance,  they  marched  overland  from  Matadi 
to  Lukuno-u.^ 

After  a  journey  to  the  Baptist  mission  station  of  Wathen, 
near  Manyanga,  Grenfell  returned  to  Lukungu,  and  the 
expedition  then  marched  in  a  south-easterly  direction  towards 
the  Portuguese  frontier.  In  the  chief's  house  at  Mayambula, 
to  the  south-east  of  Lukungu,  he  notices  a  crucifix,  apparently 
some  centuries  old,  to  which  the  native  hunters  go  to  make  an 
obeisance  before  starting  out  on  their  expeditions. 

This  region  to  the  south  of  the  Lower  Congo,  west  of 
Longitude  16°,  is  mountainous  and  picturesque  —  a  broken 
plateau  which  reaches  to  altitudes  of  3,000  feet  in  parts.  Gren- 
fell's highest  recorded  altitude  was  2,440  feet,  near  Luvitiku. 
"The  views  from  these  heights  are  magnificent,  and  the  rocky- 
escarpment  of  the  plateau  we  are  leaving  is  most  striking. 
It  is  quite  perpenchcular  in  many  places."  He  notes  that  the 
people  on  this  plateau  of  beautiful  scenery  and  abundant  food 
supplies  have  a  distinct  Portuguese  civilization,  dating  from 

^  In  his  diary  Grenfell  appends  these  notes  on  the  petrology  of  the  cataract 
region  :  "  Oxide  of  iron,  hyaline  quartz  round  about  Boma.  Hyaline  quartz  and 
gneiss  at  Musuko.  Saccharoidine  iron  quartz  and  mica  schist  between  Matadi  and 
Isangila.  At  Isangila,  flint  and  ferruginous  micaceous  schist.  Argillaceous  shale  at 
Ntombi.    Limonite  at  Manyanga." 


<  1  3" 


c  i        1  .  ~  to.    CLeo  c.T-' 


«-^e^t    "er>A  IX  ft  t,4j^cjc  ,  • -o-vi  fejcO:    e5>^w  t     P*     *^^e^  L^fr^ct  e/vut* 


-      C  ■       W  I  - 

r 


/ 


79.  FACSIMILE  OK  KING  LEOPOLD'S  COMMISSION  TO  THE  REV.  GEORGE  GREXKELL 
TO  SERVE  AS  PLENIPOTENTIARY  ON  THE  FRONTIER  DELIMITATION  COMMISSION 
FOR  THE  DETERMINATION  OF  THE  FRONTIER  BETWEEN  PORTUGAL  AND  THE 
CONCiO  STATE 


igo   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 

several  centuries  ago,  and  that  all  the  leading  men  have  a 
Portuguese  name  in  addition  to  their  native  one,  and  greatly 
value  the  title  of  Dom. 

On  this  journey  Grenfell  and  his  European  companions 
were  riding  donkeys,  apparently  quite  a  novelty  in  this  as 
in  other  parts  of  the  Congo.  The  natives  of  course  knew 
enough  of  the  white  man  by  tradition  to  express  little  sur- 
prise at  anything  he  might  do  ;  ^  but  their  dogs  and  fowls 


80,  M.  FROMENT  ON  T}lt  LU.NDA  tXPtDIIlOX 


exhibited  extraordinary  fear  and  amazement  at  the  spectacle 
of  a  man  riding  an  unknown  beast. 

The  expedition  followed  the  valley  of  the  little  Lukungu 
River  on  to  this  plateau.  Still  crossing  the  plateau  of  the 
cataract  region,  on  his  way  to  the  Portuguese  frontier  and  the 
Kwango  River,  Grenfell  notes  the  relative  rapidity  with  which 
terrestrial  changes  take  place  in  this  region,  partly  from  the 
action  of  water  both  above  and  below  Qround.    This  causes 

'  Grenfell  records  in  his  diary  that  when  Lieutenant  (afterwards  Baron)  Dhanis 
visited  the  great  chief  Kiamvo,  he  came  to  the  capital  of  Mwene  Puto  Kasongo 
riding  an  ass  ;  and  that  the  great  potentate  of  the  lower  Kwango,  not  to  be  outdone, 
mounted  the  shoulders  of  one  of  his  sturdiest  men  and  thus  rode  to  meet  Dhanis  on 
equal  terms.  But  when  Dhanis  flung  himself  oft"  his  donkey  Kiam\  o  was  unable  to 
do  the  same,  for  the  retainer  clasped  his  chiefs  legs  until  he  was  promised  a  pay- 
ment. 


THE  LUNDA  EXPEDITION 


landslides  and  chasms.  Many  a  native  path  still  exists  leading 
nowhere,  because  there  has  been  a  landslip,  or  a  river  has 
changed  its  course,  and  thus  undermined  some  promontory, 
or  has  torn  its  way  through  an  alluvial  plain.  The  violent 
rains  and  floods  rising  to  thirty  feet  above  dry-season  level 
mioht  block  the  channel  of  a  watercourse  with  trees  and  gravel. 
Then  the  stream  is  abruptly  deflected  at  a  higher  level,  and 
cuts  its  way  through  a  new  channel.    The  terrific  heat  of  the 


8l.  HAMMOCK-TRAVELLING  ON  THE  LUNDA  EXPEDITION 


sun  makes  the  rocks  friable,  and  prepares  them  for  the  diluvial 
action  of  the  water. 

This  plateau  region  of  the  Lower  Congo  was  well  supplied 
with  domestic  sheep  of  the  West  African  breed.  Some  of  the 
villages  Grenfell  describes  as  being  very  old,  judging  by  the 
orrowth  of  their  fence  trees.  Banza  Makuta,  the  scene  of 
Grenfell  and  Comber's  rebuffs  in  1878  and  1880,  was  now 
found  to  be  quite  won  over  to  the  European.  It  flew  the 
flag  of  the  Congo  State,  and  its  principal  chief  sent  a 
large  contingent  of  boys  to  the  Baptist  mission  school  at 
Wathen. 

In  places  where  the  Commissioners  had  to  walk  at  this 
season  (early  June,  namely,  ihe  end  of  autumn),  the  immensely 


192   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


high  grass  with  its  barbed  seeds,'  so  characteristic  of  much  of 
tropical  Africa  outside  the  forest  region,  was  most  distressing. 
The  country  as  they  proceeded  eastwards  still  continued  to  be 
hilly.  Camps  were  often  at  altitudes  above  2,000  feet,  and 
heavy  mists  ushered  in  the  dry  season.^ 

Grenfell  notices  outcrops  of  limestone  in  this  country  be- 
tween the  lower  Congo  and  the  lower  Kwango.  Very  often 
the  graves  of  important  chiefs  or  their  relations  are  marked  by 
slabs  of  limestone,  especially  round  Kinsuka. 

In  some  of  the  villages  they  traversed  they  met  groups  of 
circumcised  boys  whose  bodies  were  whitewashed  all  over.^ 
The  villages  of  this  region  are  supplied  with  goat-houses  raised 
three  feet  above  the  ground,  and  strong  pig-styes  of  heavy 
adzed  boards  constructed  to  keep  out  leopards.  The  pig  is 
very  common  as  a  domestic  animal  throughout  all  western 
Congoland,  owing  its  introduction,  however,  to  the  Portuguese 
in  the  sixteenth  century.'* 

As  the  expedition  marched  away  from  this  plateau  region 
towards  the  Kwango,  many  conHicting  rumours  reached  it  as 
to  the  attitude  of  the  natives  under  the  rule  of  the  oreat  chief 
Kiamvo,  otherwise  known  as  Mwene  Puto  Kasongo. 

When  Grenfell  and  other  Baptist  missionaries  had  estab- 
lished the  navigability  of  the  Kwango  from  its  junction  with 
the  Kasai  as  far  as  the  rapids  of  Kingunji,  this  information, 
coupled  with  that  collected  by  Von  Mechow,  led  the  Govern- 

'  Grenfell  appends  this  list  of  grasses,  in  which  he  attempts  to  indicate  by 
descriptive  names  the  most  prominent  kinds  :  "  Fretsaw,  Big  Oat,  Small  Oat  Grass, 
Blue  Grass,  Feather  Grass,  Big  Bermuda  Grass,  Tuft-head,  Chain-stitch,  Flowering 
Grass,  Brown-tufted  Grass,  White-tufted,  Small  Flowering  Grass,  grass  with  a 
speckled  husk." 

-  This  mist — the  cachimbo  of  the  Portuguese — makes  travelling  very  disagree- 
able in  regions  of  long  grass.  The  traveller  passing  through  this  herbage  is  wet  to 
the  skin  in  a  very  short  time,  as  the  grass  is  loaded  with  moisture  deposited  by  the 
mist.  Grenfell  makes  a  note  to  the  effect  that  in  the  dry  season  on  this  account  he 
never  starts  till  about  half-past  seven  in  the  morning,  to  give  the  sun,  which  rises  at 
six,  time  to  dry  up  the  excessive  moisture  ;  whereas  in  the  rainy  season  he  starts 
soon  after  five,  as  the  sun  rising  in  an  unclouded  sky  (it  very  seldom  rains  in  the 
morning)  dries  up  what  little  moisture  remains  from  overnight. 

^  Grenfell  notes  that  the  circumcision  houses,  that  is  to  say,  huts  or  dwellings  in 
which  these  youths  live  apart  during  their  time  of  initiation,  are  marked  with  an 
emblem  apparently  phallic  in  origin. 

*  The  pig  is  not  an  inherently  domestic  animal  amongst  negroes,  as  is  the  case 
with  the  dog,  the  goat,  sheep,  ox,  or  even  fowl.  Almost  all  races  possess  a  word  for 
pig,  but  it  is  one  originally  applied  to  the  wild  bush  pigs  {Po/niiiocha'rus),  which 
indeed  in  North  Central  and  North-Western  Africa  has  occasionally  been  domesti- 
cated by  the  negro.  A  wild  boar  of  the  true  Sus  type,  related  to  the  wild  boar 
of  Europe  and  of  India,  exists  in  tropical  Africa  in  the  north-eastern  Nile  region  and 
perhaps  in  Kordofan  ;  it  has  even  been  reported  as  occurring  north  of  the  central 
Niger  ;  but  this  animal  has  never  been  domesticated  by  the  Hamitic  or  Negroid 
peoples.  The  domestic  pig  only  exists  (away  from  the  coast  regions)  in  tropical 
Africa,  in  the  southern  basin  of  the  Congo. 


THE  LUNDA  EXPEDITION 


193 


ment  of  the  Congo  to  make  a  bold  bid  for  the  possession  of  tlie 
Kwango  basin.  They  had  accordingly  sent  various  Belgian 
officers,  especially  the  celebrated  Dhanis,  to  open  up  relations 
with  Kiamvo  and  to  establish  a  garrison  at  Popokabaka  in  the 
Yaka  country,  close  to  the  Kwango  banks,  and  on  the  edge  of 
the  plateau  region. 

Kiamvo  or  the  Mwene  Puto  Kasongo  was  apparently  one 
of  those  rulers  of  Lunda  origin  that  have  played  such  a  con- 
spicuous part  in  the  negro  history  of  the  southern  basin  of  the 


82.  THE  KWANGO  RIVER  SEEN  FROM  THE  FORT  OF  POPOKAHAKA 


Congo.  The  most  celebrated  potentate  of  this  type  was  the 
MwataYanvo^  of  Musumba,  about  midway  between  the  Atlantic 
coast  and  Tanganyika  [a  little  south  of  8"  S.  Lat.],  in  the  central 
Lunda  country.  The  Lunda  people  seem  to  have  had  some 
community  of  origin  with  the  Lua  or  Luba,  whose  range  extends 
between  Tanganyika  and  the  Kasai,  south  of  the  6th  parallel  of 
S.  Lat.  This  Luba- Lunda  group  of  Bantu  peoples  must  have 
reached  their  first  home  on  the  south-west  coast  of  Tanganyika 
(Lukuga-Marungu)  from  the  north,  by  travelling  along  the 
western  shore  of  the  lake.  Then  they  extended  in  time  across 
the  Congo  basin  south  of  the  dense  forest  region. 

'  The  correct  rendering  according  to  Carvalho  is  Muala  Ya  iivita. 
I. — O 


194   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Their  rise  into  prominence  may  have  been  contemporaneous 
with  the  European  Renaissance — say  between  the  twelfth  and 
the  fifteenth  centuries :  a  period  during  which  there  were 
notable  Bantu  migrations  and  foundinos  of  states  in  South 
Central  Africa.  First  the  Bakuba,  then  the  Baluba,  and  later 
the  Alunda  arose  as  conquering  and  ruling  castes  through  skill 
in  weapon-making,  hunting,  and  warfare.  An  individual  here 
and  there,  probably  of  Hima  (Gala)  descent,  would  emerge 
from  the  crowd  and  by  dint  of  courage,  resource,  inventive- 
ness, or  the  obtaining  of  better  weapons,  become  a  mighty 
hunter,  and  thus  supply  his  people  with  food  and  adornments. 
Round  him  a  community  would  group  itself,  attracting  other 
communities  till  a  kingdom  or  empire  was  founded.  It  was 
thus  that  the  kingdoms  of  Uoanda  and  Unyoro,  of  Kongo 
and  of  the  Luba,  Lunda,  Kioko,  and  other  Bantu  countries 
came  into  existence.  No  doubt  this  commencement  of  Bantu 
state-building  was  a  far-off  echo  of  the  Arab  invasions  of 
North  Central  Africa  and  even  of  the  European  Renaissance. 
These  movements,  with  their  introduction  of  a  higher  civiliza- 
tion and  superior  weapons,  affected  the  Hamites  and  Nilotic 
negroes,  who  in  turn  reacted  on  the  Bantu  of  the  lake  regions. 
According  to  the  researches  of  Torday,  Carvalho,  and  others 
a  Luba  prince  seems  to  have  infused  the  divine  fire  into  the 
Lunda  or  Bungo  people  [the  word  Lunda,  it  may  be  re- 
marked, means  "  brother,  friend,  comrade "  in  the  southern 
Luba  dialects].  A  Lunda  adventurer  settled  about  three  hun- 
dred years  ago  on  the  Kangombe  plateau  in  S. E.  Angola, 
and  from  out  of  the  Makosa  tribe  formed  the  celebrated  raiding 
tribe,  Kioko  or  Chibokwe. 

The  Mwata  Yanvo,  who  until  the  foundation  of  the  Congo 
Free  State  and  the  division  of  spheres  of  influence  between  it 
and  Portugal  was  practically  the  suzerain  over  all  the  Lunda 
and  many  of  the  Luba  peoples,  is  the  fourteenth  in  descent  from 
the  traditional  founder  of  the  dynasty  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. At  one  time  the  influence  of  this  monarchy  stretched  as 
far  to  the  south-east  as  the  lands  of  the  Kazembe,  east  of  Lake 
Mweru,^  and  as  far  to  the  west  as  the  Kwango  River  and  the 
boundaries  of  Angola. 

About  a  hundred  years  ago,  a  Lunda  adventurer  at  the 

>  The  Kazembe,  indeed,  was  originally  a  viceroy  of  the  Mwata  Yanvo's  appoint- 
ment. There  are  still  Lunda  people  living  in  the  Lake  Mweru  region.  It  is  probable, 
indeed,  that  before  the  coming  of  the  Portuguese  in  the  fifteenth  century  a  wave  of 
Lunda-Luba  influence  had  brought  about  the  creation  of  the  kingdom  of  Kongo,  as 
it  had  created  the  Kioko  people  in  a  corner  of  S.E.  Angola. 


THE  LUNDA  EXPEDITION 


head  of  a  trading-  or  hunting  caravan  established  himself 
amongst  the  Bayaka  on  the  Kwango  River.  Previous  to  this 
event,  a  great  trading  race — the  Imbangala — had  been  formed 
in  the  valley  of  the  middle  Kwango  by  a  mixture  of  Lunda 
influence  with  less  civilized  people — probably  the  cannibal  and 
savage  "  Jaggas  "  of  Portuguese  history. 

The  descendant  of  the  Lunda  chief  who  thus  established  a 
sort  of  monarchy  amongst  the  Bayaka  with  its  title  of  "  Mwene 
Puto  Kasongo "  (Kasongo,  the  lord  of  the  Portuguese^)  was 


83.  THE  KIAMVO,  MWENE  PUTO  KASONGO  (CENTRE  FIGURE) 
From  a  photograph  taken  by  Pere  Butage  in  1906. 


known  as  Kiamvo  or  Kiamfu.  In  the  early  'nineties  of  the  last 
century  this  chieftain  was  a  source  of  great  anxiety  to  the 
Congo  Free  State.  A  Congo  garrison  had  been  established  on 
the  verge  of  his  territory  at  Popokabaka,  and  thither  Grenfell's 
expedition  was  bound. 

After  leaving  Ntumba  Mani  rumours  began  to  reach  the 
expedition  that  the  Kiamvo  might  prove  unfriendly. 

In  1889  the  Congo  State  had  commenced  to  open  up 
relations  with  the  Kiamvo  of  the  Bayaka  on  the  Kwango, 

'  Kasongo  originally  meant  "  blacksmith,"  and  means  that  still  in  the  Luba 
speech. 


196   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 

and  had  despatched  an  expedition  under  Captain  Lehrmann.^ 
When  he  neared  the  Kiamvo's  headquarters  at  "  Mwene  Puto 
Kasonoo  "  he  was  sick,  and  was  travelling"  in  a  hammock.  At 
the  sight  of  a  hostile  force  on  the  road  in  front  of  them,  he 
descended  and  advanced  to  meet  them  with  only  a  walking- 
stick.    A  native  threw  at  him  a  burning  brand,  which  he 

managed  to  dodge.  Another 
rushed  at  him  with  a  knife,  but 
by  this  time  Lehrmann's  "boys" 
had  come  up  with  a  shot-gun. 
Lehrmann  escaped  being  stabbed 
by  shooting  his  opponent  full  in 
the  chest.  He  soon  had  his  four- 
teen Zanzibaris  round  him,  and 
the  discharge  of  their  ouns  killed 
thirty  of  the  natives.  The  chief 
i)[  the  village  received  a  revolver- 

 .^hot  which   shattered   his  right 

^^kIw  ^^^^HP^'r        knee.     After  the  fio'ht  was  over 

o 

the  village  chief  came  to  Lehr- 
mann for  medical  treatment,  which 
was  accorded  to  all  the  wounded. 
After  that  the  chief  became  a  firm 
Iriend  of  Lehrmann,  and  was  of 
some  assistance  to  Grenfell. 
k  inding  the  Kiamvo  so  decidedly 
hostile,  Lehrmann  retreated  to 
Stanley  Pool. 

In    i8go,    Lieutenant  (after- 
wards Baron)  Dhanis  was  sent  up 
to  deal  with  the  Kiamvo.  He 
moved  with  such  rapidity  from 
84.  CAPTAIN  DRAG  LEHRMANN      villao-e  to  villaQ-e  that  he  cliscon- 

certed  all  attempts  at  opposing 
his  progress.  He  finally  faced  the  Kiamvo  with  the  offer  ot  a 
large  present  of  trade  goods  or  a  military  attack.  The  Kiamvo 
sullenly  chose  the  present,  and  the  Belgians  were  allowed  to  build 
at  Popokabaka,  near  the  east  bank  of  the  Kwango.  Here  several 
Belgian  officers  with  a  small  Zanzibari  oarrison  had  been  with 
difficulty  holding  their  own  for  the  last  two  years,  the  Bayaka 
constantly  attacking  them  with  or  without  Kiamvo's  orders. 


'  Herr  Drag  Lehrmann  is  a  Croat  from  near  Laibacli,  in  Austria.  He  was  one 
of  the  most  distinguished  officers  of  the  Congo  Free  State  between  18S2  and  1896: 
much  liked  and  trusted  by  the  natives. 


THE  LUNDA  EXPEDITION 


197 


The  Kiamvo  (who  at  the  time  of  writing- — some  fifteen 
years  later — is  a  state  prisoner  at  Leopoldville)  was  described 
by  Grenfell  as  "capricious  and  cruel,  taking  life  for  the  slightest 
offence,  or  for  no  offence  at  all,  and  keeping  up  a  terrorism  by 
which  he  rules.  He  will  summon  a  chief  (whom  he  thinks  is 
waxing  too  powerful)  to  his  presence  with  some  flattering- 
message,  and  then  strike  off  his  head."^  As  to  the  white  men 
installed  at  his  town  with  a  garrison  of  sixty  or  seventy 
soldiers,  they  had  a  very  bad  time  of  it.  The  two  Belgian 
officers — Dunart  and  Vollont — had  long  beards,  and  these 
when  the  Kiamvo  lost  his  temper  with  them  he  would  attempt 
to  pull  out.  They  were  frequently  threatened  with  death  when 
coming  to  discuss  apparently  friendly  matters.  He  would 
alternate  this  treatment  with  buffoonery  and  presents  of  palm 
wine. 

At  last  the  position  of  these  Belgian  officers  at  the  Kiamvo's 
capital  (Mw^ene  Puto  Kasongo)  became  untenable.  All  com- 
munications had  been  cut  off,  they  were  threatened  with  star- 
vation ;  their  messengers  and  porters  were  killed,  also  such  of 
the  small  garrison  as  exposed  themselves  outside  the  defences 
hastily  thrown  up.  The  officers  resolved  therefore  to  make  a 
desperate  sortie.  They  suddenly  burst  out  of  their  own  stock- 
aded settlement  on  the  rest  of  the  town,  which  was  divided  into 
different  quarters  by  strong  barricades.  In  their  desperation 
they  captured  these  one  after  the  other  and  left  some  two 
hundred  of  the  enemy  killed  and  the  greater  part  of  the  town 
in  flames.  The  attackino-  force  under  the  three  Beloian  officers 
consisted  of  scarcely  more  than  sixty  men,  and  they  used  18,000 
cartridges  in  this  attempt  to  break  out  of  Mwene  Puto  Kasongo. 

From  here  they  marched  northwards  to  the  Belgian  fort  of 

1  Dr.  Biittner,  a  German  explorer  of  south-west  Congoland,  visited  the  Kiamvo 
and  his  Court  in  1885.  On  his  subsequent  journey  to  Stanley  Pool  he  gave  Grenfell 
the  following  account  of  his  experiences.  His  capital  on  the  Nganga  River,  near 
the  Kwango,  was  a  large  place,  containing  many  thousands  of  people.  The  Kiamvo 
kept  up  great  state,  and  would  not  see  Biittner  for  two  days.  He  was  very  cruel,  and 
killed  many  people  on  accusations  of  sorcery,  chiefly  by  subjecting  them  to  the 
poison  ordeal  (an  infusion  of  the  ErythropJilceum  bark).  The  hillsides  outside  the 
town  running  steeply  down  to  the  river  were  simply  strewn  with  human  remains,  and 
Biittner's  boys  brought  home  several  skulls.  Another  expedition  that  had  visited 
Kiamvo's  brought  away  a  harvest  of  upper  and  lower  jaws.  Biittner's  specimens 
were  generally  lacking  the  lower  jaw,  and  it  seemed  impossible  thus  to  get  complete 
skulls,  the  fact  being  that  the  victims  of  Kiamvo's  cruelty  were  thrown  out  to  rot  in 
the  sun,  and  were  generally  eaten  by  the  pigs,  with  which  the  town  swarmed.  The 
pigs  after  their  repast  scattered  the  bones  right  and  left.  Dr.  Biittner  was  rather 
disgusted  at  receiving  one  of  these  pigs  as  a  present  from  Kiamvo.  Upon  his 
declining  to  eat  pork,  Kiamvo  killed  one  of  his  dozen  cows  and  presented  it  to  him. 
Only  Kiamvo  himself  was  allowed  to  keep  cattle,  and  he  had  a  small  herd  of  not 
more  than  twelve.  The  domestic  fowls  of  the  country  were  a  relatively  large 
breed. 


igS   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 

Popokabaka.  Before  reaching  this  place  they  were  attacked 
by  the  Kiamvo's  forces.  One  of  the  white  officers  was  wounded, 
and  many  of  the  Zanzibaris  were  killed,  but  the  remnant 
reached  Popokabaka,  and  enabled  that  place  to  defend  itself 
against  the  Kiamvo's  attacks. 

An  attempt  was  then  made  to  evacuate  Popokabaka 
and  retreat  westwards,  but  the  pioneering  force  was  re- 
pelled by  the  Kiamvo's  men,  and  at  last  their  only  course 


85.  KWANGO  RIVER  FROM  BEACH  NEAR  POPOKABAKA 


was  to  remain  at  Popokabaka  in  a  half-famished  condition 
until  reinforcements  connected  with  Grenfell's  expedition 
reached  them. 

Hearing  of  this  expedition,  Kiamvo  had  reconsidered  his 
attitude,  and  made  overtures  for  peace.  About  this  time  he 
uttered  one  of  those  cryptic  sayings  so  characteristic  of  the 
negro,  the  interpretation  of  which  is  not  easy.  "The  cater- 
pillar fell  into  the  water,  and  his  hairs  came  out."  This  was 
interpreted  by  Grenfell  to  mean  either  "  I  have  fallen  into 
trouble  and  my  people  have  left  me,"  or  "  1  have  no 
longer  means  with  which  to  defend  myself"  (the  hairs 
being   the   weapons  of  the   caterpillar).     The   defence  of 


THE  LUNDA  EXPEDITION 


199 


Popokabaka  and  the  whole  situation  were  becoming  much 
easier  owing-  to  the  possibihty  of  direct  steamer  communica- 
tion between  Stanley  Pool  and  the  Kingunji  Rapids  on  the 
Kwango. 

Grenfell  reached  Popokabaka  on  the  4th  of  October  1892. 
The  place  was  and  remained  for  some  time  in  a  state  of 
quasi-famine.  Owing  to  the  orders  of  the  Kiamvo,  the 
surrounding  country  was  completely  deserted  by  the  inhabi- 
tants, who  would  make  no  market  and  bring  no  food  for 
sale.    The  garrison  lived  mainly  on  the  manioc  roots  which 


86.  GRENFELL'S  TENT  ON  LUNDA  EXPEDITION 

they  dug  up  from  the  native  plantations  in  the  vicinity.  A 
little  fish  was  obtained  from  the  river.  Supplies  of  European 
provisions,  however,  began  to  come  in  by  the  overland  route 
from  Matadi. 

The  expedition  having  been  brought  up  to  sufficient  military 
strength — about  four  hundred  men  all  told — the  military  section 
started  off  under  the  command  of  Captain  Lehrmann,  and 
forced  its  way  to  Kasongo,  the  headquarters  of  Kiamvo.  Many 
a  message  had  been  sent  on  in  advance  explicitly  warning 
Kiamvo  against  the  consequences  of  pushing  matters  to  an 
extremity.  The  expedition,  he  was  told,  was  a  peaceful  one 
unless  war  was  forced  upon  it.  Fortunately  Kiamvo  decided 
to  accept  these  overtures.    He  allowed  the  expedition  to  build 


200   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


a  new  station  close  to  the  banks  of  the  Kwango  on  the  out- 
skirts of  his  chief  town,  Kasongo  Lunda/ 

Grenfell  and  his  wife  left  Popokabaka  on  November  7 
1892  and  joined  the  main  expedition  at  Kasongo  Lunda  on 
November  16,  having  been  very  ill  and  weak  on  this  journey, 
mainly  performed  by  boats  up  the  Kwango. 

"  Kasongo  Lunda  "  (he  writes)  "  is  430  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
river,  and  is  reached  by  a  road  which  is  especially  hilly  during  the  first 
half.  The  path  then  strikes  across  a  plateau,  which  has  an  altitude  of 
about  1,700  feet  above  sea-level,  and  which  is  covered  with  forest  and  a 
dense  undergrowth  of  pineapples.  A  steep  descent  of  the  path  brings 
one  to  the  Xganga  stream,  beyond  which  is  an  equally  steep  ascent 
leading  up  to  the  Kiamvo's  new  town,  which  is  about  a  mile  south  of 
the  old  one  abandoned  in  April  1892  after  the  battle  with  the  State 
forces.  The  new  town  counts  some  nine  hundred  houses — everything 
has  the  appearance  of  being  done  in  a  hurry.  .  .  .  The  State  station, 
instead  of  being  half  a  mile  away,  as  formerly,  is  well  within  a  hundred 
yards  of  the  nearest  house,  and  occupies  a  fine  commanding  position. 
.  .  .  M.  Lehrmann  has  made  wonderful  progress  in  the  three  weeks 
since  he  left  Popo,  having  put  up  many  good  temporary  buildings  and 
^ot  the  posts  for  a  clay-walled  house.  The  camp  of  the  four  hundred 
people  presents  a  motley  group  of  tents,  huts,  and  shelters  of  every 
conceivable  shape  and  kind  ;  but  our  departure  in  a  day  or  two  will 
allow  the  station  settling  down  to  a  normal  condition  with  seventy-five 
soldiers  respectively  quartered  in  three  very  comfortable  barracks. 

"  17th  November  1892.  I  am  better  this  morning,  and  it  is  arranged 
for  us  to  pay  a  visit  to  Mwene  Puto  Kasongo  (the  Kiamvo)  at  about 
9  a.m.  Mrs.  Grenfell  and  myself,  Captain-Commandant  Gorin,  and  M. 
Froment  therefore  make  our  way  towards  his  '  boma,'  -  taking  chairs  to 
sit  on  as  well  as  umbrellas,  for  it  threatens  to  rain.  At  about  thirty 
yards  from  the  entrance  to  the  royal  enclosure  surrounding  the  Kiamvo's 
house  we  are  halted  by  a  military  guard,  and  seat  ourselves  under  the 
eaves  of  a  friendly  roof  The  Kiamvo's  guard  then  informs  him  of  our 
arrival,  and  an  attendant  brings  forth  a  folding-chair  which  had  been 
given  to  the  king  by  M.  Lehrmann  ;  another  brings  a  few  fathoms  of  red 
cloth  to  drape  the  chair.  Two  or  three  minutes,  and  a  guard  of  some 
two  hundred  armed  men  are  regularly  lined  on  each  side  of  the  path 
from  the  doorway  of  the  'lumbu'  to  the  place  where  we  are  sitting. 
Shortly  afterwards  the  Kiamvo  came  forth,  announced  by  his  flute- 
player,  and  attended  by  a  personal  retinue  of  a  dozen  men  and  two 
players  on  big  '  mbitis.'    He  seated  himself  in  the  centre  of  a  semi- 

^  This  name  revealed  by  Grenfell,  which  is  ordinarily  given  to  this  historic  site, 
shows  the  Lunda  origin  of  the  Kiamvo's  monarchy.  This  station  must  have  been 
founded  about  a  hundred  years  ago,  partly  for  the  purpose  of  trading  with  the 
Portuguese  on  the  Kwango.  Mwene  Puto,  as  already  stated,  means  the  lord  or 
master  of  the  Portuguese  (Puto),  i.e.  the  European,  trade.  Kasongo  was  the  title, 
and  Lunda  a  reference  to  the  Lunda  origin  of  the  adventurer  who  made  this  his 
headquarters  and  was  the  ancestor  of  the  Kiamvo. 

'-  Boma  is  a  Zanzibari  word  much  used  on  the  Congo  and  elsewhere,  meaning  a 
stockade. 


THE  LUNDA  EXPEDITION 


20I 


circle  formed  by  his  soldiers.  Shortly  afterwards,  Mwene  Huta  (Lord 
of  the  Guns)  approached  his  brother,  the  Kiamvo,  and  made  a  respect- 
ful obeisance  by  drawing  his  right  hand  across  his  breast  and  describing 
a  graceful  sweep  with  his  left  hand.  We  did  not  waste  much  time  in 
preliminaries,  but  we  scarcely  entered  upon  our  talk  before  a  smart 
shower  began  to  fall.  One  of  our  umbrellas  covered  the  Kiamvo,  and 
with  the  help  of  another  we  sat  it  out.  I  spoke  of  my  wish  to  visit 
the  Kiamvo  some  time  ago  and  of  being  hindered  by  the  war.  Now 
that  peace  had  been  declared  I  was  very  glad  to  be  able  to  come,  and 
hoped  peace  would  never  again  be  broken.  I  spoke  of  my  coming  to 
Africa  to  tell  the  people  about  God,  whose  name  they  knew,  and  who 


87.  A  METALLOPHONE  FROM  THE  KONGO-KWAN(;0  REGION,  CALLED  MBITI 

BY  THE  N.ATIVES 


had  made  Himself  known  to  us,  and  had  sent  us  to  tell  His  children 
everywhere  of  His  fatherhood  and  of  the  work  of  reconciliation  that 
had  been  accomplished  for  them." 

[Then  followed  a  discussion  on  Christian  theology.]  "The 
Gospel,  I  fear,  passed  over  their  heads  as  something  very  good 
for  white  men,  but  of  very  little  practical  concern  to  them- 
selves." The  Kiamvo  took  a  great  interest  in  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments, as  did  his  people  who  were  listening,  but  rather  of 
the  self-congratulatory  kind  ;  for  the  Kiamvo  boasted  that  as  a 
race  they  never  stole  nor  committed  adultery,  while  such  of  his 
attendants  as  were  bold  enough  expressed  an  emphatic  approval 
of  the  law  "Thou  shalt  not  kill." 

"  From  the  personal  appearance  of  the  Kiamvo,  I  judge  he  is  a 
man  capable  of  all  the  cruelty  and  despotism  with  which  he  is  credited. 


202   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


He  is  about  forty-five,  with  a  few  grey  hairs  showing  in  his  beard  and 
head.  His  brother  may  be  a  couple  of  years  younger,  but  is  a  man  of 
comparatively  pleasing  countenance — very  fat,  yet  very  energetic.  As 
master  of  the  forces,  his  energy  is  manifest  in  his  well-disciplined 
soldiers,  who  are  really  a  very  fine  body  of  men." 

"  In  the  afternoon  Kiamvo  gave  orders  for  a  dance,  and  in  honour 
of  my  wife's  presence  he  himself  danced  the  madiumba,  accompanied 
by  the  marimba.  Previously,  the  dance  was  signalized  by  the  killing  of 
one  or  more  slaves  by  the  Kiamvo  himself  In  deference  to  the  new 
regime  (which  prevents  his  taking  the  life  of  his  slaves),  the  Kiamvo 
tried  to  dance  wielding  a  stick  instead  of  the  regular  mpoko  (a  sort  of 
Roman  sword  about  two  feet  in  length).  A  very  short  trial  of  the  stick 
sufficed,  for  he  relinquished  it  to  call  for  the  vipoko,  which  was  carried 
by  one  of  his  officers.  The  change  was  the  cause  of  some  small  trepi- 
dation to  several  amongst  the  onlookers,  who  feared  that  a  touch  of  the 
sword  might  indicate  them  for  the  executioner.  They  were  greatly 
relieved  when  the  mpoko  found  a  resting-place  on  the  ground,  instead 
of  on  some  one's  shoulder,  which  would  have  been  the  fatal  sign." 

"  The  Kiamvo's  wives — more  than  fifty  of  them — were  very  enthu- 
siastic in  cheering  their  lord  and  master.  Having  neither  caps  nor 
bonnets  wherewitli  to  let  off  the  exuberance  of  their  feelings,  they 
pulled  up  grass  and  threw  it  in  the  air. 

"  This  was  the  first  dance  since  the  advent  of  the  new  regime,  and  a 
settlement  of  the  difficulty  which  had  been  hanging  over  the  country 
for  months.  Everybody  seems  greatly  relieved,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  better  times  are  in  store.  It  is  very  plain  that  Kiamvo's  policy  has 
been  to  surround  himself  with  a  comparatively  overwhelming  force  and 
to  keep  his  subjects  in  perpetual  awe.  He  has  opposed  their  gathering 
together  in  communities  larger  than  villages  of  twenty  to  fifty  houses. 
Yet  the  country  is  fertile  and  capable  of  supplying  a  large  population, 
and  it  is  only  the  repressive  rule  of  the  Kiamvo  that  makes  him  the 
ruler  of  a  country  of  small  and  scattered  villages.  I  have  sometimes 
doubted  whether  the  rule  of  a  despot  was  not  to  be  preferred  before 
the  anarchy  of  a  series  of  independent  head-men  ;  but  from  what  I  see 
here  the  doubt  is  quite  dispelled.  It  is  better  far  for  Africa  that  each 
village  should  be  a  kingdom  in  itself  and  fight  and  struggle  for  its  own 
existence,  than  that  it  should  come  under  the  rule  of  an  autocrat  at  a 
distance  who  can  only  maintain  his  authority  by  fear  and  by  the  power 
of  imposing  cruelties.  A  wise  autocrat  acting  for  the  good  of  his 
people  does  not  seem  to  exist  in  Africa.  In  fact,  the  present  condition 
of  things  seems  altogether  incompatible  with  a  state  that  is  not  held 
together  by  mere  cruel  force.  The  more  or  less  patriarchal  rule  that 
obtains  in  the  distressingly  anarchical  districts  governed  by  indepen- 
dent head-men,  notwithstanding  the  lack  of  protection  for  life  and 
property,  is  after  all  better  for  the  people  ;  for  a  chief's  slaves  are  his 
defenders,  and  certain  rights  have  to  be  accorded  to  them,  or  they  will 
run  away  to  neighbouring  head-men,  who  are  often  not  slow  to  entice 
them.  Poor  Africa!  It  is  indeed  time  that  civilization  stepped  in  to 
heal  her  many  woes.    The  remedies  here  and  there  are  very  drastic,  as 


THE  LUNDA  EXPEDITION 


bad  as  blue-stone  and  other  caustics  at  times,  but  a  thousand  times 
better  than  to  let  the  old  sore  go  on  festering.  There  come,  it  is  true, 
the  new  sores  of  civilization — drink  and  syphilis  and  lax  morality  1 
Poor  Africa ! 

Before  leaving,  the  Kiamvo  placed  in  the  charge  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Grenfell  a  little  boy  and  girl,  "  Luvusu  and  Nsumba,"  so 
that  they  might  remain  with  them  for  a  year  or  two  and  be 
taught  in  the  white  man's  school.  They  could  then  return  to 
Kiamvo's  town  and  serve  as  interpreters. 

Resuming  his  journey  up  the  Kwango,  Grenfell  noticed  that 


88.  IN  THE  BERTHON  BOAT  ON  THE  KWANGO  RIVER,  LUNDA  EXPEDITION 


the  hills  on  the  west  were  much  higher  and  more  broken  than 
those  on  the  east.  As  the  expedition  journeyed  southwards, 
however,  the  hills  grew  lower,  and  the  river  wider,  passing 
through  a  country  of  rolling  grass  and  low  scrub.  The  expedi- 
tion was  much  distressed  at  this  time  with  an  unusually  heavy 

^  Grenfell's  Lunda  journal  teems  with  instances  of  the  detestable  behaviour 
towards  each  other  or  towards  the  indigenous  people  of  the  more  or  less  Lunda 
chieftains.    Here  is  a  sample  : — 

"Witchcraft.  29th  of  January  1893.  The  war  between  Kakoba  and  Ngovo 
arose  directly  out  of  Ngovo's  having  killed  two  of  six  messengers  sent  by  Kakoba 
to  demand  that  Ngovo  should  drink  the  ordeal  water  and  clear  himself  of  the  charge 
of  having  bewitched  and  caused  the  death  of  his  father  that  he  might  be  made  chief 
in  his  place.  It  was  the  heads  of  these  two  men  that  we  saw  ornamenting  the  gate- 
posts of  Ngovo's  lumbu." 


204   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


rainfall.  The  PortuQuese  side  of  the  Kwanoo  was  better 
peopled  than  that  just  taken  over  by  the  Congo  Free  State, 
partly  owing,  no  doubt,  to  the  increasing  power  of  the  Portu- 
guese and  the  consequent  reluctance  of  the  Kiamvo  to  raid  to 
the  west  of  the  Kwango.  At  the  deserted  villagres  alongr  the 
Kiamvo's  bank  they  took  what  food  they  required  and  left  trade 
goods  in  payment  to  the  absent  owners.  A  good  deal  of  hippo 
meat  was  obtained,  which  supplemented   the  food  supply. 


89.   FRANZ  JO>Kl    lALI.s  ul     IHL   KWAX'.      .  -  ,  ,  k,    I )]      (  A' KkE  I  '   l;V  THE 
AUSTRIAN  EXPLORER  VOX  MECHOW,  1880 


Several  other  "  Mwene  Putos "  or  Lords  of  the  Portuguese 
markets  are  reported  to  exist  besides  the  Kiamvo.  Probably 
the  title  was  arrogated  by  any  bold  adventurer  that  could  con- 
trol a  market-place  on  the  Kwango.  The  natives  south  of 
the  Kuhu  confluence  with  the  Kwango  (some  of  them  belong- 
ing to  the  Holo  tribe)  were  found  possessing  Portuguese  guns 
of  a  very  antique  type,  dating  from  the  seventeenth  century.^ 

A  little  distance  above  the  confluence  of  the  Kuhu  the 
boating  party  encountered  the  Franz  Josef  Falls  of  the 
Kwango,"  which  effectually  stop  navigation  south  of  this  point. 

'  Later  on  he  writes  :  "They  are  the  most  wonderful  African  trade  guns  I  have 
ever  seen  (though  they  seem  to  be  made  in  Birmingham),  with  fluted  stocks.  I  saw 
one  very  old  gun  of  Moorish  style,  with  white-metal  pins  in  the  stock." 

-  Discovered  by  von  Mechow  in  1880. 


THE  LUNDA  EXPEDITION  205 

North  of  the  Franz  Josef  Falls  the  Kwango  is  fairly  navigable 
as  far  as  the  Kingunji  Cataracts,  and  even,  at  the  season  of  full 
water,  all  the  way  down  to  the  main  Congo.  The  shore  of  the 
river  below  the  Franz  Josef  Falls  is  strewn  with  a  coarse 
shingle  of  huge  pudding-stones,  rounded  pebbles  four  to  six 
inches  in  diameter.  At  the  falls  themselves  there  is  an  out- 
crop of  granitic  rock.  There  is  a  certain  change  in  the  popula- 
tion at  these  falls.  The 
Portuouese  side  of  the 
Kwango  was  (in  1892) 
depopulated,  but  on  the 
east  bank  the  natives  be- 
lonoed  to  the  Batembo 
section  of  the  Baholo. 

North  of  the  Franz 
Josef  Falls  on  the  east 
bank,  the  people  were 
Bayaka  and  Balunda, 
there  known  by  the  name 
of  Benoro.  The  Batembo- 
Baholo  wear  their  hair  in 
long  plaits,  eight  or  ten 
in  number,  each  plait 
terminating  in  strings  of 
beads  which  reach  to  the 
shoulder.^  These  Baholo 
were  far  more  settled 
and  civilized  than  the 
Bayaka,  whom  they  ac- 
cused of  always  carrying 
their  Q-uns  slun""  under  9°-  liAnouj  pkoi'lk,  i  itkr  k\van<;o 
their  arms,    and  being 

"ready  to  fight,  fight,  fight  and  kill."  It  would  almost  seem 
here  as  though  one  was  in  the  presence  of  two  opposing  currents 
of  population,  the  Baholo  having  come  up  from  the  south  and 
south-east,  and  the  Bayaka  from  the  north, 

'  Elsewhere  Grenfell  describes  these  Baholo  as  "very  timid  .  .  .  the  long  tresses 
of  the  men  falling  to  the  shoulder  and  often  to  their  breasts  make  them  look  very 
effeminate."  "This  race  is  tall  and  slender  in  shape,  with  regular  features,  straight 
noses,  and  good  facial  angle.  Being  very  quiet  and  agreeable  in  manner,  they  con- 
trast most  favourably  with  their  Bayaka  neighbours.  There  are  no  cicatrices  on  their 
bodies.  The  ends  of  their  hair  plaits  are  sometimes  rolled  in  thin  brass  plates  instead 
of  beads,  and  then  look  very  like  old-fashioned  bootlace  tags,  only  the  tags  are  as  big 
as  a  pipe-stem,  and  two  inches  long.  The  men  are  much  greater  dandies  than  the 
women,  though  women  of  position  are  held  in  great  respect,  and  in  certain  cases 
wield  considerable  authority.    They  are  great  cattle  keepers." 


2o6   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


The  country  contained  less  and  less  forest  as  the  party  pro- 
ceeded southwards  up  the  valley  of  the  Kwango.  Where  it 
was  not  cultivated,  the  grassy  hills  were  dotted  with  stunted 
shrubs  or  scrubby  trees,  and  this  vegetation  evidendy  suffered 
severely  from  each  successive  annual  bush  fire.  There  were 
deep  ravines  exposing  bright  red  clay,  but  the  general  aspect  of 
the  country  was  that  of  a  level  plateau  four  hundred  feet  above 
the  Kwango  that  had  been  scored  and  scarred  by  the  action  of 
water.    The  soil  was  sandy,  and  suited  best  the  cultivation  of 


91.  RAPIDS  OF  THE  KWANGO 


maize,  though  ground-nuts,  castor-oil,  tobacco,  manioc,  pump- 
kins, and  okros  were  also  grown  ;  but  the  annual  bush  fires  (in 
Grenfell's  opinion)  were  ruining  the  country,  "  impoverishing 
vast  areas,"  These  fires  together  with  the  wasteful  native 
system  of  destroying  the  virgin  forest  for  manioc  plantations 
were  gradually  turning  the  country  into  a  semi-desert,  for  the 
soil  without  the  constant  supply  of  leaf  manure  (from  the  trees) 
was  poor  and  sandy,  and  fit  for  little  but  the  cultivation  of 
maize.  Moreover  the  game,  at  one  time  abundant  in  this 
region,  was  driven  far  away  by  the  ravages  of  the  bush  fires. 

The  story  that  Grenfell  tells  in  his  diary  of  this  rapid 
deterioration  of  a  land  from  the  unchecked  annual  fires  by 


THE  LUNDA  EXPEDITION  207 


which  the  natives  seek  to  destroy  the  long  grass  and  also  to 
kill  small  mammals,  etc.,  is  familiar  to  most  African  explorers 
who  have  travelled  outside  the  restricted  area  of  existing  virgin 
forest.  During  the  six  years  that  the  present  writer  spent  in 
the  Nyasaland  Protectorate  the  devastations  of  the  bush  fires 
scarcely  ranked  second  in  his  mind  with  those  of  the  slave- 
traders.  In  this  respect  the  white  man  has  entered  negro 
Africa  none  too  soon.  The  negro  left  to  his  own  elementary 
ideas  of  agriculture  was  rapidly  turning  his  continent  into  a 
desert.  Undoubtedly  the  rain  supply  of  Africa  has  been 
largely  modified  by  the  disafforesting  of  the  country,  and  by  the 
gradual  destruction  of  vegetation  from  the  annual  bush  fires. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  native  could  argue  the  question  he 
would  say,  "  These  bush  fires  enable  us  to  get  rid  of  the  intoler- 
able obstruction  of  the  long  grass  with  its  barbed  seeds.  They 
also  destroy  venomous  snakes,  and  above  all,  poisonous 
mosquitoes,  while  from  the  ashes  of  the  burnt  vegetation  we 
can  at  any  rate  manure  the  ground  sufficiently  for  one  or 
two  crops  of  food  stuffs."  The  reply  to  this  would  be  that 
mosquitoes  are  best  kept  under  by  assiduous  cultivation,  and  that 
the  presence  of  live-stock  would  afford  quite  sufficient  manure 
for  fertilizino-  the  soil. 

When  the  expedition  reached  the  Tungila  River  it  was  face 
to  face  with  one  of  those  unexpected  difficulties  in  African 
travel.  The  Tungila  looked  a  small  stream  on  the  map,  but 
owing  to  the  heavy  rains  it  was  about  as  safe  and  as  easy  to 
ford  as  the  Thames  would  be  at  hioh  tide  at  London  Bridg-e. 
The  timid  natives  had  hidden  their  canoes,  and  Grenfell  and  his 
party  had  to  construct  rafts  out  of  sticks  and  bundles  of  dried 
papyrus  stalks.  They  constructed  one  twelve  feet  long  and 
four  feet  wide.  By  means  of  this  (though  it  only  took  five  men 
and  five  loads  at  each  passage)  they  were  able  to  cross  the 
Tungila  without  the  help  of  the  natives,  though  the  latter, 
seeing  this,  came  to  their  assistance  at  the  eleventh  hour.  Even 
when  the  opposite  shore  was  reached,  a  swamp  four  feet  in 
depth  had  to  be  traversed  for  nearly  a  mile.  Then  came  a  steep 
walk  uphill,  and  at  last  the  Europeans  were  able  to  change 
their  clothes  after  walking  in  water  and  mud  for  more  than  six 
hours,  thankful  when  they  reached  dry  ground  to  eat  as  break- 
fast and  lunch  a  few  roasted  corn-cobs.  On  their  arrival,  how- 
ever, in  the  town  on  the  hill  (Mutala  or  Mukazela)  they  found 
a  friendly  but  dignified  old  chief  who  was  the  owner  of  a  fine 
herd  of  cattle,  one  of  which  he  bestowed  on  the  expedition  in 
order  that  they  might  have  fresh  beef.    But  his  town  was  un- 


2o8   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


bearable  through  the  flies  attracted  by  the  cattle.  Before 
leaving  his  abode  they  noticed  a  face  carved  in  the  semicircular 
board  over  his  doorway,  which  Grenfell  describes  as  a  really 
remarkable  piece  of  high  relief,  quite  suggestive  of  Greek  art. 

At  the  neighbouring  big  town  of  Kavina  the  young  and 
intelligent  chief  was  much  taken  with  a  dog  belonging  to  one 
of  the  Belgian  officers,  and  offered  three  cows  or  three  slaves 
for  it.  At  the  neighbouring  town  of  Kimbindu  the  expedition 
was  menaced  with  trouble.  Some  of  the  porters  had  been 
stealing  manioc  in  the  fields,  and  the  excited  natives  wished  to 
shoot  the  thieves.  Grenfell  said,  "  No  fighting!  We  will  pay." 
"No,"  replied  the  natives;  "we  will  shoot  the  thieves." 
Grenfell  replied,  "  Here  are  all  our  soldiers  :  see  how  strong  we 
are.  If  one  of  our  men  is  killed  there  will  be  war.  If  you 
will  bring  your  manioc  we  will  buy  it :  hungry  men  must  be 
fed."  The  chief  of  the  town  saw  the  reasonableness  of  this 
position,  and  this  episode  ended  quite  happily  in  presents  from 
both  sides. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  temper  of  the  natives  at  this  town 
and  in  the  surrounding  districts  was  exacerbated  by  their  own 
scarcity  of  food.  They  had  just  gone  through  a  severe  famine, 
during  which  slaves  had  been  sold  for  eighty  manioc  roots  each. 
Grenfell  remarks  that  this  scarcity  simply  arose  from  the 
ridiculous  native  laws,  which  imposed  a  long  period  of  absten- 
tion from  work  whilst  the  people  were  mourning  the  deaths  of 
notabilities — chiefs  and  relations,  more  especially  the  chief  of 
the  big  town  on  Portuguese  territory  far  to  the  south — Kapenda 
Kamulemba.  This  last  death  had  resulted  in  a  six  months' 
abstention  from  agricultural  work,  which  had  resulted  in  a 
famine.  This  is  one  of  many  instances  which  might  be  quoted 
to  show  that  the  negro  is  very  far  from  happy  when  left  to  his 
own  devices. 

The  Portuguese  section  of  delimitation  was  encountered  at 
Kasongo  Luamba,  to  the  south  of  the  Tungila,  on  the  Nguri- 
Akama  hill.  It  consisted  of  Senhor  Sarmento  (accompanied 
by  Mme.  Sarmento),  Lieutenant  Sarmento,  and  the  celebrated 
African  traveller  and  ethnologist,  Henrique  de  Carvalho.  The 
Portuguese  had  been  awaitino-  for  three  months  the  arrival  of 
Grenfell  and  his  expedition,  and  had  several  times  received  the 
rumour  that  the  Congo  representatives  had  been  cut  up  by  the 
Kiamvo.  The  Portuguese  were  travelling  very  comfortably, 
with  three  mules,  several  riding-oxen,  large  tents,  and  a 
caravan  of  over  three  hundred  porters  and  soldiers. 

When  the  chief  and  people  of  Kasongo  Luamba  found  that 


THE  LUNDA  EXPEDITION 


these  two  expeditions  were  to  meet  as  friends,  and  there  was 
not  to  be  war  (as  they  had  half  supposed)  between  the  Congo 
Independent  State  and  Portugal,  with  consequent  ravages  of  their 
own  country,  they  gave  vent  to  great  demonstrations  of  delight, 
much  firing  of  powder  from  their  extraordinary  old  guns  (with 
fluted  stocks,  and  some 
in  Moorish  style  with 
wh  ite-metalpins 
driven  into  the  wood), 
extravagant  dancing  to 
the  accompaniment  of 
the  marimba  (the  xylo- 
phone), which  Gren- 
fell  here  heard  and  saw 
for  the  first  time,  "  the 
best  African  music  I 
have  ever  come 
across,"  and  state  pro- 
cessions of  the  leading 
chiefs  and  their  friends. 
Some  of  these  arrived 
carrying  bows  and 
arrows,  and  yet  garbed 
in  hats,  shirts,  and  even 
black  frock-coats  and 
trousers,  dragoon  hel- 
mets, red  sashes,  and 
big  country  cloths ! 

From  the  confluence 
of  the  Tunoila  with 
the  Kwango,  at  the 
end  of  December  1 892, 
Grenfell  journeyed  east 
and  north-east  in  zio^- 
zags  jointly  with  the 
Portuguese  expedition.  As  they  neared  the  Wamba  River 
they  came  within  the  echoes  of  a  fierce  struggle  which  was 
going  on  between  two  potentates — Kanzori  and  Kahungula — ■ 
for  the  possession  of  a  royal  fetish  indicating  supreme  rank. 
This  was  made  of  the  tendons  of  human  arms  and  leos.^ 

o 

'  On  his  return  journey  Cirenfell  notes  the  issue  of  the  struggle:  "i2th  of 
April  1893.  At  our  present  camping-place  we  met  two  of  Kahungula's  men,  who 
report  their  chief  having  been  killed  by  Kanzori.  It  seems  that  Kanzori  after  retiring  to 
the  left  bank  of  the  Wamba  sent  messengers  and  a  goat  and  plantain  as  a  sign  of 
friendship  to  Kahungula,  explaining  that  he  had  no  grievance  against  him,  but  only 

I. — P 


92.  MAJOR  AM)  M.MK.  sAiniKXlO,  LUNDA 
EXPEDITION 


2IO  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Whilst  these  chieftains,  these  petty,  bloodthirsty  tyrants  of 
Lunda  origin,  fought  and  fled,  the  Baholo  peasantry  between 
the  Kwango  and  the  Wamba  kept  as  much  as  possible  aloof 
from  these  Wars  of  the  Roses  and  devoted  themselves  to  their 
sleek  herds  of  cattle.  The  waters  of  some  of  the  eastern 
affluents  of  the  Kwango  (such  as  the  Lue)  were  saline  and  the 
grass  of  the  salt  marshes  suited  the  cattle  particularly  w^ell. 
They  did  not  thrive  below  an  altitude  of  2,300  feet. 

The  mention  of  such  an  elevation  shows  that  Grenfell's 
party  had,  in  leaving  the  narrow  Kwango  valley,  mounted  the 


93.    THE  MEMBERS  OF  THE  LUM'A  1  .ELl.MITATION  COMMISSION; 
ALSO  MME.  SARMENTO  AND  MRS.  GRENFELL 


south-central  African  tableland.  Through  this  plateau  region 
the  great  southern  affluents  of  the  Kasai — the  Wamba, 
Kwango,  Kwilu,  Luanje — cut  their  way  in  precipitous  gorges 
of  varying  depth,  necessitating  much  arduous  climbing  up  and 
down  the  frequent  water-cut  ravines.^ 

The  plateau  was  thus  divided  up  into  parallel  ranges  of 
flat-topped  hills  (sandstone  formation  chiefly")  bearing  sparse, 

against  his  allies.  He  induced  him  to  bring  a  return  present  and  to  pay  a  visit.  All 
went  well  :  the  goat  and  plantain  were  eaten.  But  the  next  morning,  soon  after  day- 
break, as  Kahungula  was  coming  out  of  the  house,  smoking  his  big  diamba  pipe,  he 
received  a  shot  in  the  abdomen  from  the  gun  of  one  of  Kanzori's  men,  who  had  been 
posted  in  hiding  for  the  purpose.  Kahungula  was  able  to  run  a  short  distance,  but 
he  was  soon  caught,  and  his  hand  and  head  cut  off.'" 

'  Grenfell  compares  several  of  these  to  the  Colorado  canon. 

-  Often  very  red  in  colour.  "The  red  sandhills  of  the  Lushiko  valley.''  (Grenfell.) 


THE  LUNDA  EXPEDITION  211 


coarse  herbage  and  scrubby  trees.  But  the  river  valleys — like 
that  of  the  Kwango  (in  the  Sekeji  district,  especially) — were 
rich  in  tall  trees  and  handsome  forest,  much  draped  with  grey- 
green  Usnea  lichen.  The  water  of  the  plateau  streams  was  of 
a  clear  indigo  tint.  The  cliffs  of  the  plateau  on  either  side  of 
the  Kwango  were  of  white  sand — disintegrated  felspathic  rock. 
On  the  shores  of  the  Kwango  masses  of  white  rock  protruded 
through  the  white  sand — very  effective  in  contrast  with  the 


94.    HILLS  BORDERING  WAMBA  VALLEY 

deep  indigo  tone  of  the  clear  water.  Grenfell  thus  describes 
the  scenery  of  the  Luanje  River  {an  important  affluent  of  the 
Kasai)  : — 

"  The  hill  we  crossed  on  leaving  the  Luanje  and  proceeding  west- 
wards was  remarkable  for  its  short  grass  and  absence  of  scrub.  It  was 
mainly  of  red  sand.  I  counted  eleven  distinct  kinds  of  grass  in  full 
seed.  The  barbed  seeds  are  much  fewer  than  in  the  cataract  region. 
A  great  number  of  acacia-like  shrubs  with  hop-like  flowers  present 
gorgeous  masses  of  yellow  blossom.  There  are  a  few  deep  red  thistle- 
heads  and  a  small  red  star  cluster  on  stems  a  foot  in  height.  These  are 
the  only  bright  tints,  if  we  except  a  ragged  blue  flower  which  never 
appears  to  be  complete." 


212   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


The  plateau  near  the  crossing  of  the  Kwango  was  3,600  feet 
above  sea-level,  and  would  have  benefited  the  tired  Europeans 
with  its  temperate  climate,  had  it  not  been  that  the  rainy- 
season  was  in  full  force  and  the  expedition  was  soused  day  and 
night  for  weeks  together. 

Moveover,  since  joining  forces  with  the  Portuguese,  small- 
pox had  attacked  the  porters  and  soldiers  of  the  expedition. 
Famine  hovered  about  them  as  they  travelled  eastward  from 
the  industrious  settled  Baholo  into  war-ravaged  depopulated 
regions  long  subject  to  Lunda  and  Kioko  devastation.  Such 


95.    CROSSING  KWILU  RIVER,  LUNDA  LXI'EDITIUX 

indigenous  population  as  there  was  had  become  nomadic — they 
would  settle  in  a  likely  spot  for  some  months,  building  ram- 
shackle, temporary  houses  and  planting  quick-growing  crops 
like  manioc — then,  unless  they  were  already  raided,  they  would 
move  on  restlessly  to  another  site  which  offered  virgin  soil  for 
planting  and  greater  security  of  position.  Some  of  this  rest- 
lessness was  due  to  the  rubber  trade,  which  had  been  introduced 
a  few  years  before  into  these  western  Lunda  countries.  The 
rubber  (native  name,  Nkwezi)  was  derived  from  the  roots  or 
underground  branches  of  a  species  of  Landolphia  (probably 
L.  T/io//onii).  The  natives  were  carrying  on  a  reckless  de- 
struction of  the  rubber  plant,  and  never  for  a  moment  considered 
the  advisability  of  replanting. 


THE  LUNDA  EXPEDITION 


215 


The  oil  palm  ceased  to  be  a  feature  in  western  Lunda  above 
an  altitude  of  2,300  feet.  Raphia  palms  of  two  kinds  were 
found  in  moist  places.  A  species  of  climbing  palm  [Ancis- 
trophylluni)  was  found  by  Grenfell  in  swampy  localities  as  far 
south  as  8°  S.  Lat.,  and  at  an  altitude  of  between  two  or  three 
thousand  feet. 

The  roaming  habits  of  the  "  Lunda-ized  "  natives  and  their 
long-time  possession  of  firearms  had  brought  about  a  singular 
absence  of  beasts  and  birds  on  this  sandstone  plateau.  The 
lion  (according  to  Grenfell)  is  present  in  the  valley  of  the 
Kwango  River,  and  there  are  a  few  reed-buck,  bush-buck, 
cephalophus,  and  perhaps  cobus  antelopes.  Between  the 
middle  Kasai  and  the  Kwango,  however,  it  is  emphatically 
not  a  big-game  country,  and,  for  its  vertebrate  fauna,  a  dis- 
appointing part  of  Africa. 

The  Delimitation  Commission  penetrated  as  far  east  as  the 
Lushiko  River,  an  eastern  affluent  of  the  Luanje. 

Here  they  were  stopped  by  the  sullen  opposition  of  a  power- 
ful chief,  Mona  Bwamba,  ruling  the  country  between  the 
Lushiko  and  the  Kasai.  This  man  was  one  of  the  northern- 
most representatives  of  the  powerful  Kioko  race,  a  warlike 
people^  that  for  the  last  half  of  a  century  has  afflicted  the  lands  of 
the  once  united  Lunda  empire,  especially  in  its  western  portion. 
There  was  a  rumour  that  the  officials  of  the  Conoo  State  who 
had  been  established  by  Baron  von  Nimptsch,  Wissmann, 
Grenfell,  and  others  on  the  Lulua  River  (a  parallel  stream 
flowing  to  the  east  of  the  main  Kasai)  and  also  on  the  Luebo 
(between  the  Kasai  and  the  Lulua)  had  been  at  war  with  a 
Kioko  chieftain  to  chastise  him  for  his  raids  on  the  cowardly 
but  peaceable  Luba  people. 

It  was  therefore  (so  far  as  one  can  gleam  from  his  diaries) 
found  inadvisable  by  Grenfell  to  proceed  further  east  than  the 
Lushiko  in  his  delimitation.  He  had  already  lost  over  sixty 
men  out  of  the  Congo  State  expedition  from  smallpox,  hunger, 
and  sickness  caused  by  the  excessively  heavy  rains.  "We  are 
within  sixty  miles  of  the  Kasai  and  are  beaten,"  he  writes  on 
March  23  1893.  On  the  25th  of  March,  owing  to  the  almost 
open  hostility  of  the  chief  at  the  Lushiko  ferry,  they  marched 
southwards  to  a  Kioko  village  called  Sha  Munana.  Here  the 
Ba-kioko  pestered  them  much  by  impudent  thieving.  One  man 
boldly  tried  to  walk  off  with  Grenfell's  compass  stand,  but  was 

1  Known  also  as  the  I3a-joke,  Va-kiokwe,  Va-chibokwe,  etc.  The  word  was 
probably  a  nickname,  as  in  the  Southern  Luba  dialect,  Mbokwe,  Chibokwe  means 
"  hyaena." 


2i6   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


arrested  in  time.  If  a  paddle  was  lost  out  of  a  borrowed  canoe, 
if  one  of  the  Europeans'  dogs  snapped  at  a  native,  if  a  Portu- 
guese or  a  Congo  soldier  resented  an  attempt  at  open  plunder, 
the  native  head-man  at  once  raised  a  clamour  and  insisted  on 
extortionate  ransom.  One  reason  why  the  joint  expedition 
was  so  disliked  was  the  smallpox  with  which  their  porters  and 

soldiers  were  in- 
fected, and  the  Ba- 
kioko  not  unnatur- 
ally dreaded  being 
contaminated  with 
this  plague.  As  the 
joint  expedition 
marched  south-west 
and  west  on  its  re- 
turn towards  the 
Kwanoo,  the  small- 
pox  cases  increased. 

On  all  this  jour- 
ney, from  the  time 
of  meetino-  the  Por- 
tuguese,  Grenfell 
had  been  ridincr  an 
ox.  The  natives 
between  Angola 
and  Tanganyika 
and  over  Portu- 
guese South-West 
Africa  have  trained 
oxen  for  centuries 
as  ridin^  -  animals. 
This  practice  was 
apparently  intro- 
duced by  the  Portu- 
o'uese  four  centuries 
ago.  It  is  surprising  that  the  same  thing  has  not  been  done  in 
Uganda  and  contiguous  countries,  and  elsewhere  in  tropical 
Africa  where  oxen  can  exist,  as  they  are  much  hardier  than 
horses,  and  far  easier  to  feed. 

But  these  riding-oxen,  though  as  a  rule  very  good-tempered, 
have  their  prejudices.  Grenfell  writes  on  the  7th  of  April 
1893  :— 

"  Gigante  does  not  like  wetting  his  tail  when  he  goes  through  a 
swamp,  and  arches  it  like  a  cat  does  when  confronting  an  unfriendly 


97.    HUNGRY  PORTERS  ON  THE  LUNDA  EXPEDITION 
RETURNING  TO  ANGOLA 


98.    GRENFELL  RIDING  AN  OX,  LUNDA  EXPEDITION 


THE  LUNDA  EXPEDITION 


219 


dog.  If  his  tail  does  get  wet,  the  rider  gets  the  benefit  of  it,  for 
Gigante  dries  it  by  a  few  vigorous  shakes  right  and  left.  If  it  is  only 
clear  water  it  does  not  much  matter,  but  when  passing  through  the 
mud  the  bull's  tail  becomes  an  effective  paint-brush.  When  I  first 
mounted  '  Cahuca '  I  was  told  never  to  wear  a  waterproof,  because  the 
rustling  of  this  garment  was  his  pet  aversion,  making  him  frantic.  I 
regarded  this  advice  sufficiently  to  take  care  that  when  wearing  my 
waterproof  I  made  as  little  noise  as  possible,  and  sundry  sudden  starts 
following  an  uninten- 
tional rustle  empha- 
sized the  need  for 
caution.  After  a 
while,  however,  he 
got  used  to  it  —  in 
fact,  when  I  began  to 
take  advantageof  this 
by  shaking  my  rain- 
coat to  accelerate  his 
speed  he  soon  lost  his 
fear.  At  first  a  slight 
shake  was  more  ef- 
fective than  a  stroke 
with  the  whip,  but 
now  if  I  shake  it  with 
both  hands  he  does 
not  care  a  bit." 

Occasionally, 
hoM^ever,  these 
oxen  were  seized 
with  fits  of  obsti- 
nacy, and  would 
not  cross  swamps 
or  rivers.  In  such 
cases  the  worn-out 
men  of  the  expedi- 
tion were  obliged 

to  kill  them  and  brinof  them  across  as  beef.  As  to  the  mules 
of  the  expedition,  they  expected  to  be  carried  in  hammocks 
whenever  they  got  stuck  in  the  mud,  and  would  actually 
"malinger"  in  order  to  have  themselves  thus  relieved. 

After  crossing  the  Kwilu  to  return  westwards  the  expedition 
had  to  wade  through  swamp  after  swamp,  besides  being  per- 
petually wetted  through  by  the  heavy  rain,  Grenfell  tried 
riding  his  ox  in  football  breeches  so  that  he  might  get  off  and 
walk  through  the  mud  and  water  with  bare  legs,  but  this  resulted 
in  his  limbs  being  cut  and  scratched  by  the  sharp-edged  grass- 
blades  or  their  barbed  seeds.    Meantime,  native  wars  breaking 


99.1  GRENFELL'S  NATIVE  ATTENDANTS  ON  THE  LUNDA 
EXPEDITION 


220   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


out  again  in  front  of  them,  coupled  with  the  terrible  lack  of 
food  in  the  northern  part  of  the  Lunda  country,  decided  Gren- 
fell  (whose  expedition  was  being  decimated  with  smallpox)  to 
take  a  more  southerly  route  and  get  into  regions  more  under  the 
control  of  the  Portuguese.  In  this  way,  after  sending  his 
Congo  carriers  and  some  of  the  sick  men  northwards  by  the 
now  established  route  along  the  Kwango  to  Stanley  Pool,  he 
himself  started  off  with  the  Belgian  and  Portucruese  officers  for 
the  Kwanza  River  and  St.  Paul  de  Loanda,  which  place  he 
reached  on  the  i6th  of  June  1893,  performing  part  of  the 
journey  by  the  new  Royal  African  railway. 


CHAPTER  XII 


MISSIONARY  VICISSITUDES 

AFTER  returning  from  the  Lunda  expedition,  Grenfell 
/  \     resumed  his  work  for  the  Baptist  Mission  on  the  Upper 
A.    \^  Congo  and  settled  once  more  at  Bolobo. 

The  King  of  the  Belgians  presented  him  with  the  Royal 
Order  of  the  Lion  (Commander)  and  gave  him  the  insignia 


lOI.   THE  GRAVE  OF  THK  REV.  F.  R.  ORAM,  A  l;Al■ll.■^l    M  l>.-^lu.\  ARV, 
AT  BOPOTO,  NORTHERN  CONGO 


set  in  diamonds.  The  late  Kino-  of  Portugal  marked  his 
appreciation  of  Grenfell's  work  and  of  his  thoroughly  friendly 
relations  with  the  Portuguese  Commissioners  by  the  bestowal 
of  a  similar  decoration. 

Between  his  return  to  Bolobo  in  the  early  summer  of  1893 
and  the  year  1900  he  remained  at  work  on  the  Upper  Congo. 

221 


222   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Thus,  when  he  visited  England  in  May  1900  he  had  not  been 
in  Europe  for  nearly  ten  years. 

From  June  1893  to  May  1900,  he  applied  himself  to 
occasional  exploration,  and  at  intervals  to  surveying  and 
mapping  the  main  Congo  stream,  as  well  as  some  of  its 
northern  affluents  ;  and  his  researches  in  these  directions  will 
be  dealt  with  in  the  succeeding  chapters.  It  might,  however, 
be  interesting  at  this  point  to  take  stock  of  the  trials,  troubles, 


102.    REV.  ALBERT  WHERRETT  S  GRAVE  AT  YAKUSU,  STANLEY  FALLS 


joys,  excitements,  daily  work,  and  touring  episodes  incidental 
to  the  life  of  Baptist  missionaries  on  the  Congo  during  the 
last  twenty  years.  Similar  experiences  have,  of  course,  occurred 
to  other  propagandists. 

Between  1879  and  1900  twenty-eight  men  missionaries  and 
eight  women — thirty-six  in  all — of  the  B.M.S.,  died  on  the 
Congo,  or  shortly  after  leaving  that  country.  From  1900  to  1907 
ten  have  died  (seven  men,  three  women).  These  deaths  in- 
clude, besides  that  of  Grenfell,  his  distinguished  colleague  Dr. 
Holman  Bentley  [whose  death,  though  it  occurred  at  Bristol 
from  a  malady  of  the  chest,  must  be  ascribed  to  the  Congo 


MISSIONARY  VICISSITUDES 


223 


climate],  and  another  notable  philologist,  the  Rev.  W.  H. 
Stapleton/  The  number  of  men  (92)  and  women  (59)  mission- 
aries who  have  served  on  the  Congo  from  the  definite  com- 
mencement of  the  Mission  in  1879  down  to  the  present  day  is 
153.    The  death-roll  therefore  represents  nearly  33  per  cent. 

The  heaviest  losses  occurred  between  1883  and  1887,  and 
were  no  doubt  connected  with  the  founding  of  new  stations, 
the  clearing  of  new  ground,  and  the  heavy  transport  work  of 
steamers  and  boats  in  sections  [together  with  other  goods] 


103.    REV.  T.  J.  COMBER  AT  ARTHINGTON,  STANLEY  POOL 


past  the  cataracts  of  the  Congo  in  the  days  before  the  railway 
was  built.  Since  1900  there  has  been  a  marked  falling-off  in 
the  death-rate,  no  doubt  owinor  to  a  better  understandino-  of 
African  hygiene  and  the  realization  of  the  mosquito  theory. 

Now  that  Grenfell,  Comber,  Bentley,  and  Stapleton  are  dead, 
the  veterans  of  the  Mission  still  at  work  on  the  Congo  are 
J.  H.  Weeks,  with  a  long  record  of  1881  to  1907  (and  no 
doubt  beyond)  ;  Thomas  Lewis,  well  known  for  his  geo- 
graphical explorations  of  the  western  Congo,  who  began  his 
service  at  the  Cameroons  in  1883  ;  G.  R.  R.  Cameron  (1884), 

'  Stapleton  died  in  England  in  Decemljer  1906,  leaving  some  very  remarkable 
philological  studies  unfinished. 


224   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


A.  E.  Scrivener  (1886),  John  Pinnock  (1887),  J.  A.  Clark  (1889), 
William  Forfeitt  and  Lawson  Forfeitt  (1889),  and  J.  Whitehead 
(1890)  ;  besides  R.  H.  C.  Graham  (1886)  and  H.  Ross  Phillips 
(1886),  who  have  served  chiefly  in  Portuguese  Congo. 

Other  names  worthy  of  special  record  (besides  those  already 
mentioned)  are  Mr.  J.  Howell  (1896),  Mrs.  Thomas  Lewis  (1883, 
Cameroons),  Mrs.  Lawson  Forfeitt  ( 1894),  Mrs.  R.  H.  C.  Graham 
(1890),  Mrs.  William  Forfeitt  (1893),  Mrs.  Holman  Bentley 
(1886  :  returned  1904),  R.  V.  Glennie  (1889-96),  Kenred  Smith 
(1896),  and  H.  Sutton  Smith  (1899).  Several  of  these  have 
made  contributions  to  geographical  research  and  discovery  or 
to  philological  studies. 

The  Comber  family  may  be  said  to  have  given  their  lives  to 
the  Congo.  First  of  all  Thomas  Comber  and  his  wife,  then  Dr. 
Sydney  Comber  and  Percy  Comber,  the  former  after  one  year 
of  residence,  the  latter  after  seven,  besides  the  w'ife  of  the 
last-named,  who  predeceased  her  husband.  A  sister  of  the 
Combers,  Mrs.  Wright- Hay,  died  at  the  Cameroons  after 
several  years'  work  in  that  district.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
any  missionary,  or  any  European  for  the  matter  of  that,  ever 
gained  the  affection  and  confidence  of  recalcitrant  natives  so 
thoroughly  as  Thomas  and  Percy  Comber.  Their  names  and 
personalities  will  long  be  remembered  at  San  Salvador,  and  in 
the  cataract  region,  where  they  mostly  worked. 

The  majority  of  these  deaths  were  from  black-w^ater  fever, 
or  fever  of  the  ordinary  malarial  type.  Some,  however,  were 
caused  by  dysentery.  Dysentery  is  a  disease  which  under  or- 
dinary circumstances  Europeans  ought  to  be  able  to  avoid  if 
they  realize  the  danger  of  drinking  unboiled  and  unfiltered  water 
[though  the  disease  seems  sometimes  communicable  by  some 
other  vehicle  than  water].  The  common  type  of  malarial  fever 
may  be  warded  off  to  some  extent  by  extreme  precautions  against 
mosquitoes.  Black-water  fever  is  as  yet  an  unsolved  mystery, 
as  it  so  often  occurs  in  regions  where  there  are  no  mosquitoes 
of  any  kind  [districts  of  great  altitude,  for  example],  and  attacks 
persons  who  have  been  removed  from  a  mosquito  -  haunted 
country  for  several  months  :  ^  nor  are  all  the  secrets  of  simple 
malarial  fever  solved  and  explained,  though  the  mosquito 
theory  accounts  for  much. 

Deaths  would  often  occur  with  startlino-  suddenness.  Inci- 

o 

'  Just  as  it  may  suddenly  break  out  in  England  or  in  some  other  temperate 
climate.  The  theory  most  in  fa\our  now  is  that  it  is  due  to  an  accumulation  of 
ordinary  malarial  bacilli  in  the  blood,  and  is  more  often  than  not  precipitated  by 
some  sudden  lowering  of  vitality,  due  either  to  a  severe  mental  shock  or  a  period  of 
intense  anxiety,  or  to  a  sudden  chill. 


MISSIONARY  VICISSITUDES 


225 


dents  like  this  would  happen  in  the  'eighties.  A  missionary, 
J.  W.  Hartley,  together  with  two  English  engineers,  left  Under- 
hill  on  the  Lower  Congo  in  February  1884  to  walk  up-country 
to  Manyanga. 
The  eno'ineers 
were  specially 
engaged  to  re- 
construct the 
Peace.  On  the 
road  they  were 
overtaken  by  a 
storm  of  rain. 
Their  bundles 
of  bedding  were 
wrapped  in 
i  n  d  i  a  ru  b  b  e  r 
sheets,  but  badly 
fastened,  so  that 
the  blankets 
became  wet.  It 
was  forgotten  to 
dry  these  during 
the  sunshine  of 
the  next  morn- 
ing. All  three 
men,  sleeping 
under  wet  blan- 
kets, developed 
malarial  fever 
and  died  in  two 
or  three  days. 

Donald  Mac- 
millan,  a  High- 
lander of  the 
H  e  b  r  i  d  e  s  , 
reached  Under- 
bill on  Decem- 
ber 24  1884,  and 
died  on  March  9 

1885  after  two  or  three  days  of  fever.  Andrew  Cruickshank  was 
a  year  in  the  country  between  1884  and  1885,  but  died  suddenly 
at  Wathen,  in  the  cataract  region,  of  black- water  fever. 
Alexander  Cowe  died  at  San  Salvador  and  W.  F.  Cottingham 
at  Underbill  after  only  a  few  months  or  weeks  in  the  country, 

I.  — Q 


104.  kEV.  John  I'lNNOCK  AND  HLS  FAMILY 

Mr.  Pinnock  is  a  West  Indian,  and  son  of  the  Rev.  J.  Pinnock,  a  pioneer  in  the 
Cameroons.    Mr.  Pinnock  himself  served  for  some  years  in  the  Cameroons. 


226  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Another  year  of  sad  losses  was  1887.  Shindler,  Darling, 
Biggs,  Whitley,  Miss  Martha  Spearing,  and  the  celebrated 
Thomas  Comber  all  died  in  that  year. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  greater  number  of  deaths  occurred 
in  the  cataract  region  of  the  Congo  and  in  the  not  far  distant 
district  of  San  Salvador.  Much  the  same  fact  was  noteworthy 
in  regard  to  the  losses  from  fever  sustained  by  Stanley's 
expedition  in  founding  the  Congo  Free  State  between  1879 
and  1884.  Stanley's  station  of  Vivi,  on  a  hill  above  the 
Congo,  the  Livingstone  Inland  Mission  station  at  Palabala  (at 
an  altitude  of  between  two  and  three  thousand  feet  above  sea- 
level  perhaps),  the  hills  round  about  Manyanga,  and  on  the 
western  side  of  Stanley  Pool  :  all  these  regions  proved  to  be 
deadlier  than  the  vast,  flat,  swampy  regions  of  the  inner  Congo 
basin.  Somewhat  similar  has  been  the  experience  of  Euro- 
peans in  Nyasaland.  The  unhealthiest  parts  of  that  country 
have  not  necessarily  been  flat,  marshy  regions,  but  the  prox- 
imity of  sun-heated  rocks  and  stones,  such  as  the  promontory 
of  Livingstonia,  and  the  Universities'  Mission  island  of 
Likoma. 

Here  is  an  example,  culled  from  Bentley,  of  the  way  in 
which  a  strong,  healthy  person  can  suddenly  collapse  in  Africa. 
A.  D.  Slade,  a  middle-aged  man  of  fine  physique,  "a  splendid 
all-round  man."  He  caught  a  chill,  developed  black- water 
fever,  and  died  after  a  short  illness,  having  been  only  eight 
months  on  the  Congo. 

Another  frequent  cause  of  death  at  stations  like  Underbill 
on  the  lower  river  would  be  the  fatal  sea-breeze,  which  was 
once  so  mistakenly  styled  "the  doctor"  on  the  West  Coast  of 
Africa.  The  inexperienced  European,  after  grilling  during  a 
day  of  broiling  heat  in  a  region  where  the  sun's  rays  are 
caught  as  in  a  trap  and  refracted  from  the  red  rocks,  so  that  at 
four  in  the  afternoon  there  may  be  a  shade  temperature  of 
105°;  towards  evening  sits  gasping  with  delight  on  the 
verandah  as  the  breeze  from  the  Atlantic  comes  sweeping  a 
hundred  miles  and  more  up  the  channel  of  the  Congo,  and 
plays  about  his  heated  body  with  its  delicious  coolness.  Before 
dinner-time  that  man  has  sustained  a  severe  chill,  and  unless  he 
has  taken  measures  to  check  it  and  to  restore  the  temperature 
and  the  vitality  he  is  certain  to  be  seized  soon  afterwards  by  a 
severe  attack  of  fever. 

Grenfell  himself,  in  one  of  the  rare  passages  dealing  with 
his  own  health,  says  that  after  nineteen  years'  life  on  the  Congo 
his  digestion  was  well-nigh  ruined,  that  he  felt  an  old  man  at 


MISSIONARY  VICISSITUDES 


227 


fifty,  could  scarcely  assimilate  sometimes  the  simplest  forms 
of  food,  and  further  injured  himself  by  drinking  too  much 
tea. 

The  man  who  would  invent  a  real  stimulant  which  was  not 
a  poison  and  was  not  followed  by  a  dangerous  reaction  would 
indeed  be  a  great  benefactor  of  the  "African"  (whether  white 
or  black).  Tea  and  coffee  are  perhaps  the  least  hurtful  ;  but  it 
is  often  very  difficult  to  get  good  coffee  in  Africa  (strange  to 
say),  and  cocoa  tends  to  biliousness.    Alcohol  in  any  and  every 


Uiiderhlll  n'..^I-S.  Ta^e  Station).  Londe  (Swedish  Mission's  Base  Station). 


105.  THE  IsnSSION  ST.\TIONS  OF  NEW  UNDERBILL  AND  LONDE  ON  THE  LOWER  CONGO, 
AT  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  CATARACT  REGION,   NEAR  M.ATADI 


form — no  matter  what  may  be  written  to  the  contrary — is 
dangerous  to  the  health  in  an  African  climate,  always 
poisonous,  more  or  less,  because  the  reaction  from  its  effects  is 
— more  or  less — a  temporary  depression  of  vitality. 

General  health  of  course  depends  largely  on  good  food  and 
good  cooking,  and  married  missionaries  consequently  stand  the 
climate  far  better  than  bachelors.  Whilst  they  are  at  work  in 
the  school  or  the  field  there  is  some  one  at  home  seeing-  to  the 
preparation  of  a  wholesome  meal. 

Amongst  the  officials  of  the  Congo  Independent  State  and 
the  traders,  those  whose  means  permitted  them  to  obtain  good 
food  stood  the  climate  better  than  others  not  so  fortunate. 


228   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Those  who  brought  their  wives  with  them  from  Europe  stood 
it  best  of  all. 

So  far  as  the  natives  were  concerned,  there  was  no  long- 
continued  virulent  hostility  to  daunt  the  missionary  in  these 
pioneering  days.  Only  one  was  ever  wounded  by  a  native, 
and  that  was  Comber ;  there  were  a  few  narrow  escapes  from 
poisoned  arrows  or  spears  aimed  by  excited  savages  to  whom 
the  white  man  appeared  as  an  enemy.  Not  being  given  un- 
duly to  the  pleasures  of  the  chase,  the  missionaries  seldom  ran 
the  risk  of  being  gored  by  buffaloes  or  trampled  by  elephants. 
Their  chief  danger  from  wild  animals  lay  in  the  direction  of 
hippopotami  and  crocodiles.^ 

As  regards  the  crocodiles,  in  the  earlier  days  before  these 
reptiles  had  realized  the  potency  of  European  firearms,  mis- 
sionaries cruising  about  Stanley  Pool  or  the  Upper  Congo  in 
small  boats  or  canoes  were  frequently  objects  of  attack. 
Bentley  describes  in  vivid  language  how  they  would  see  a  log 
drifting  towards  them,  aimlessly,  as  it  seemed,  and  suddenly 
the  log  would  turn  into  an  enormous  crocodile  rushing  at  the 
canoe  with  undisguised  ferocity,  only  to  be  warded  off  at 
the  very  last  moment  by  a  bullet  through  his  skull.  Hippo- 
potami were  more  dangerous  than  crocodiles.  They  charged 
the  boat  or  the  canoe  relentlessly,  and  were  long  in  acquiring  a 
wholesome  awe  of  the  rifle-bullet. 

The  whirliaicr  of  time  brought  about  a  curious  revenge  on 
the  hippopotamus  who  in  the  early  'eighties  made  himself  so 
dangerous  to  river  travellers.    The  chronic  state  of  famine 

o 

along  the  south  coast  of  Stanley  Pool  caused  the  representa- 
tives of  Bishop  Taylor's  Mission  to  devote  their  spare  time  to 
hippo  shooting.  The  meat  was  succulent  and  nourishing,  and 
besides  supplying  the  Europeans  with  food,  could  be  dried  and 
exchanored  with  natives  dwellino-  inland  for  their  vegetable 
produce.  After  Bishop  Taylor's  Mission  was  dissolved  and  its 
members  joined  other  bodies  and  left  the  unpromising  banks  of 
Stanley  Pool,  the  hippo  shooting  was  taken  up  by  the  State, 
and  Captain  Hinde  and  other  officers  on  their  way  to  the  Arab 
War  in  1890-3  were  often  required  to  spend  their  time  when 
halting  at  Stanley  Pool  in  shooting  hippos  for  the  nourishment 
of  the  stations, 

'  It  IS  remarkable  how  in  all  books  of  travel  relating  to  Africa  and  the  experi- 
ences of  all  travelled  "  Africans,"  one  hears  next  to  nothing  of  dangers  from  poisonous 
snakes  or  of  deaths  from  that  cause,  though  there  are  in  the  Congo  region  at  least 
seven  examples  of  viperine  and  cobra  snakes  whose  venom  is  fatal. 


MISSIONARY  VICISSITUDES 


But  missionaries  and  all  other  Europeans  on  the  Congo 
would  probably  reckon  as  trivial  the  risks  from  crocodilian 
ferocity  or  hippopotamine  malice  (still  more  so,  the  one  chance 
in  ten  thousand  of  being  killed  by  snake,  elephant,  leopard,  or 
buffalo),  compared  with  the  intolerable  nuisance,  discomfort, 
and  danger  caused  by  insects  in  Congo  life. 

There  are  the  very  numerous  species  of  blood-sucking  gnat 
("mosquito"),  including  the  malaria-transmitting  Anophelines. 
Mosquitoes  are — or  were  at  one  time — omnipresent  in  most 


Io6.  A  HOUSE  OF  THE  B.M.S.  AT  LUKOLELA,  WESTERN  EQUATORIAL  CONGO 

parts  of  the  Congo  basin  below  3,000  feet,  though  worse  in 
some  places  than  in  others  (Bolobo  and  Lukolela  were  extremely 
bad).  Their  abundance  is  no  doubt  seasonal  :  they  are  less 
obvious  in  the  short  dry  season,  and  are  absent  on  the  plateaux 
away  from  watercourses  or  groves.  Clearing  the  grass  and 
scrub  is  the  best  method  of  driving  them  away.  But  they  re- 
main nevertheless  the  leading  pest  of  Congo  life  {vide  p.  941). 

There  is  a  tsetse  fly — Glossina palpalis — the  probe  of  which 
occasions  a  temporary  smart,  but  which  we  now  know  as  one  of 
the  deadliest  enemies  of  humanity,  the  agent  for  introducing 
into  the  human  system  the  trypanosome  which,  when  it  reaches 
the  spinal  marrow  and  the  brain,  causes  "sleeping  sickness." 


230   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 

There  are  the  sand-flies  or  midges  {Culicoides  or  Cerato- 
pogoii  F) — found  also,  it  is  true,  in  temperate  regions,  but  par- 
ticularly hard  to  bear  in  some  [:>arts  of  the  Congo.  A  cloud  of 
these  almost  invisible  little  pests  may  sweep  in  through  the 
windows  of  a  riverside  bungalow,  penetrate  the  ordinary  mesh 
of  a  mosquito-curtain,  and  leave  the  wretched  sleeper  tingling  all 
over  face  and  arms,  blotched  and  swollen  as  with  some  eruptive 
fever.  They  attack  one  under  the  shade  of  trees  in  some  cool 
glen  ;  they  haunt  the  verandah  at  the  brief  sunset  hour  of 
pleasant  relaxation. 

There  are  also  the  stunted  little  flies  [Sinmlium  danmosiim, 

most  appropriately 
named !),  much  bigger 
than  the  midge,  with 
short  black  bodies  (about 
one-eiohth  of  an  inch 
long),  that  settle  on  the 
hand  and  leave  beads  of 
blood  at  everv  with- 
drawal  of  the  sharp  pro- 
boscis, injecting  also 
some  venom  which  lono- 
remains  to  irritate  and 
smart.^  There  are  on 
or  near  the  water  huoe 

o 

hippo  flies  with  green 
eyes  and  tawny  bodies 
that  drive  through  clothes  and  skin  a  veritable  stiletto;  other  flies 
which  with  their  ovipositors  deposit  an  egg  in  the  wound  that 
grows  into  a  grub  and  will  only  issue  through  its  self-made 
abscess  ;  house-flies  in  myriads,  wherever  cattle  are  bred — odious 
with  their  stupid  intrusiveness;  jiggers  or  burrowing  fleas;  preda- 
tory bloodthirsty  "  driver  "  ants,  minute  brown  ants  that  want  to 
substitute  themselves  for  your  sugar  and  biscuits,  large  ants  that 
stink  profoundly,  small  black  ants  intent  on  devouring-  natural- 
history  specimens  ;  cockroaches  two  inches  long  ;  locusts  four 
inches  long;'-  mason  wasps  which  mess  every  prominent  article 

'  Grenfell  mentions  that  the  Teke  name  of  this  ily  is  EJiuna ;  pi.  Bihuna. 

-  The  illustration  on  page  233  of  a  locust  devouring  a  mouse  [from  specimens 
now  in  the  British  Museum]  represents  one  of  these  Congo  locusts.  This  insect  was 
actually  picked  up  by  the  Rev.  M.  H.  Reid  in  the  act  of  devouring  a  mouse.  It  was 
brought  home  by  the  Re\-.  Lawson  Forfeitt,  and  has  been  identified  as  Cyrtacanthacris 
rubella  [the  mouse  is  a  species  of  Lcggada\.  The  locust  had  apparently  eaten  away 
much  of  the  mouse's  ear.  For  this  type  of  locust  to  eat  anything  but  vegetable  food 
is  very  exceptional,  but  Mr.  Forfeitt  has  observed  that  they  de\  our  spiders  when  they 
have  exhausted  the  herbage. 


I08.  LEOPARD  KILLED  ON  UPPER  CONGO  BY  REV.  W.  H.  STAPLETON 
(Mr.  Stapleton  is  in  left-hand  corner  of  picture.) 


MISSIONARY  VICISSITUDES 


233 


of  furniture  with  their  clay  nests  containing"  a  grub  and  a  half- 
dead  spider  ;  grey,  glistening  wasps  with  almost  deadly  sting  ; 
beetles  that  bur- 
row into  the  raf- 
ters and  reduce 
them  to  dust  ; 
caterpillars  that 
produce  a  skin 
disease  by  slight- 
est contact  with 
their  poisonous 
hairs  ;  aromatic 
bugs,  shrieking 
locustids,  pounc- 
ing crickets  of 
hideous  aspect, 
and  mantises  with 
long  necks  and  fat 
bellies  which  after 
having  unneces- 
sarily flown  from 
the  lamp  on  to 
your  neck  will  nip 
the  timid  finger 
advancing-  to  dis- 
lodge  them. 

Amongst  other 
discomforts  in 
boat  or  steamer 
travelling  on  the 
Congo  might  be  a 
plague  of  may-flies 
{^E  p  heme  rid  CE^ 
that  rose  out  of 
the  water  after 
sunset  and 
covered  the  deck 
of  the  vessel,  es- 
pecially making 
for  the  lamps, 

which  would  be  simply  coated  with  their  dead  bodies.  These  may- 
flies if  falling  into  soup  or  food  gave  it  a  nasty  aromatic  taste. ^ 


109.  LOCUST  DEVOURING  A  MOUSE 


'  On  the  other  hand,  neither  Grenfell  nor  any  other  traveller  on  the  Congo 
(including  the  present  writer)  seems  to  have  observed  there  the  minute  gnat  known 


234   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 

These  were  perhaps  the  real  terrors  of  the  animal  world  on 
the  Congo,  these  tiny  insect  pests  :  not  the  crocodile,  who  has 
all  the  fascination  of  an  antediluvian  monster  ;  not  the  leopard, 
buffalo,  elephant,  or  snake,  who  did  not  interfere  with  you  if  you 
did  not  call  them  to  order;  nor  even  the  unwieldy,  wrathful  hippo, 
so  easy  to  shoot  and  so  touchingly  reminiscent  of  the  Pliocene. 
But  Nature  had  not  exhausted  her  thrills  and  dangers  with 
what  was  hostile  in  life-clothed-with-matter,  from  cannibal  man 

to  deadly  trypano- 
some,  and  from 
ptomaine  germ  to 
Strophantlitis  ar- 
row poison  :  there 
w^ere  the  elemental 
forces  to  be 
dreaded,  suffered, 
braved,  evaded. 
Broiling  sunshine, 
brinorino"  sunstroke 
and  paralysis  ;  de- 
luging rain — soak- 
ing, chilling,  kill- 
ing; tornadoes 
that  blew  the  house 
down  and  crushed 
its  occupant  with 
uprooted    trees ; 

no.  A  FLASH  OF  LIGH INING  ON  THE  UPPER  CONGO       lightning  that 

Stunned,  burnt,  or 

slew  outright — lightning  that  destroyed  in  an  hour's  combus- 
tion the  patient  labour  of  many  hands  for  many  months.  Even 
occasionally  there  were  hail-storms  with  pelting,  bruising  ice- 
bullets,  the  size  of  pigeons'  eggs.  Or  there  came  floods,  which 
destroyed  all  crops  and  gardens  and  decimated  tribes  of  willing 
listeners  with  famine  and  disease ;  droughts  which  for  nine 
months  made  agriculture  impossible  and  blasted  the  primeval 
forests  and  the  palm  groves,  with  the  breath  of  the  Sahara  in- 

on  Lake  Nyasa  as  the  kungu,  which  rises  from  the  water  in  immense  clouds  of  a 
brownish  tint  that  look  like  a  low  fog  in  the  distance.  This  fly  is  found  abundantly 
on  Lake  Nyasa,  possibly  on  I'anganyika,  and  certainly  on  Lake  \'ictoria  Nyanza. 
When  a  cloud  of  these  kungu  gnats  sweep  across  a  vessel  everything  is  thickly  coated 
with  millions  of  their  little  bodies,  scarcely  larger  than  a  pin's  head  (they  are  made 
into  cakes  and  eaten  greedily  by  the  negroes).  It  would  be  interesting  to  learn  that 
they  have  also  been  observed  on  the  great  waters  of  the  Congo  basin.  If  they  are 
absent,  it  is  curious  that  their  range  should  be  limited  to  the  Great  Lakes  on  the 
eastern  edge  of  the  Congo  basin. 


MISSIONARY  VICISSITUDES  237 


truding  on  a  climate  used  for  many  a  cycle  to  perpetual 
moisture ;  winds  that  under  a  vertical  sun — and  most  un- 
wontedly — blew  chilly  with  the  dank  cold  of  an  English 
November,  and  so  sent  men  and  women  to  death's  door  with 
pneumonia  ;  stillnesses,  more  awful  than  any  tornado  in  the 
dark  and  clammy  heat  of  the  tropical  night,  when  some  poor 
fluttering  invalid  lay  gasping  for  breath  and  fearing  that  the 
dawn  with  its  stirrino-  of  the  air  might  come  too  late. 

Some  sturdy  missionary  (or  trader  or  administrator)  will  read 
this  and  say,  "  Bosh!    I  lived  (so  many)  years  on  the  Congo, 


112.  MISSIONARY  GOING  ON  TOUR  OF  INSPECTION  IN  HOUSE-BOAT,  UPPER  CONGO 


and  was  never  scared  by  lightning  or  frightened  of  heat- 
apoplexy."  It  may  be  so.  Yet  nearly  every  incident  in  this 
catalogue  of  terrors  is  borrowed  from  the  records  of  men  like 
Livingstone,  Stanley,  Grenfell,  Bentley,  and  Hinde,  no  one  of 
whom  would  be  deemed  a  weakling  or  over-impressionable. 

But  he  would  be  right  in  maintaining  that  missionary  life 
stood  at  a  high  level  of  cheerfulness.  The  schools,  the  garden, 
the  brickyard  ;  the  blacksmith's  shop,  laundry,  sawpit,'  printing- 
press,  dispensary,  and  farm  ;  the  church — temporary,  a  frail 
structure  of  mats  and  grass,  or  the  triumphant  outcome  of 
three  years'  breathless  toil,  designed,  decorated,  finished  by  the 
man  who  taught  the  native  helpers  how  to  make  and  bake 


238  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


the  bricks,  how  to  saw  and  shape  the  timbers,  forge  and  apply 
the  iron  clamps,  affix  the  tiles  or  bolt  the  corrugated  iron  ;  the 
church,  in  any  case  the  shrine  of  indefinable  hopes  in  most 
men's  hearts,  and  to  the  European  exile  fifty  times  dearer, 
because  its  lamps  and  seats  and  reading-desks,  its  altar  or  com- 
munion-table, remind  him  not  of  Africa,  but  of  home.^ 

These  were  the  objects  that  arrested  the  missionary's 
thoughts  and  kept  him  from  despondency  or  dullness.  Alter- 
nating with  the  daily  round  of  varied  work  would  come  episodes 
of  travel  :  a  journey  on  foot  for  a  hundred  miles  or  so,  or 
a  voyage  of  discovery  by  canoe  or  steamer,  revealing  new- 
people,  new  hopes,  new  scenery,  new  languages,  new  difficulties 
to  be  met  and  surmounted. 

There  is  a  good  deal  that  is  prosaic  about  African  travel, 
but  every  now  and  then  the  diary  of  Grenfell  reveals  a  purple 
patch.     Here  is  one,  on  a  journey  with  his  daughter  '  in  1898  : — 

"  By  reason  of  the  shallowness  of  the  river  it  took  us  nearly  four 
hours  to  go  from  Bunga  to  Lokolela,  but  the  journey  was  enlivened  by 
the  sight  of  elephants  at  two  points  of  the  run.  One  of  our  men  took 
a  running  shot  at  the  first,  which  did  not  do  more  than  startle  it.  The 
second  lot  of  elephants  were  far  enough  off  to  feel  safe,  and  were 
leisurely  putting  a  little  greater  distance  between  us.  This  being 
Patty's  first  view  of  elephants  at  home,  she  wanted  to  see  them  run  ;  so 
we  blew  an  emphatic  shriek  on  the  steam  whistle,  and  the  way  those 
elephants  threw  up  their  trunks,  flapped  their  great  ears,  and  bounded 
off  was  a  sight  to  see." 

Football  on  the  sands  : — 

"  Where  there  are  villages  there  are  mostly  rocky  reefs  to  be  found, 
and  several  of  these  being  en  evidence,  and  as  another  storm  was 
gathering,  it  behoved  us  to  seek  a  sheltered  anchorage.  The  storm 
coming  mainly  from  the  east,  we  got  in  between  two  rows  of  islands 
running  north  and  south,  and  anchored  on  the  tail  end  of  a  sandbank, 
which  was  some  three  feet  out  of  the  water,  and  constituted  a  sort  of 
inner  island,  half  blocking  the  channel.  The  storm  that  threatened 
having  veered  off,  the  men  were  sent  away  in  the  canoe  to  replenish 
our  stock  of  fuel,  and  the  boys  not  required  for  that  service  took  the 
opportunity  to  have  a  game  of  football.  This  was  kept  up  with  great 
enthusiasm  till  it  was  altogether  too  dark  to  see,  the  boys  going  in  for 

1  The  Christian  rehgion  is  still  so  very  "  Caucasian''  in  its  ideals  and  mental  pic- 
tures. Nlemvo,  a  noted  Kongo  convert  and  teacher,  said  to  Grenfell,  after  e.xamining 
a  picture  of  the  Day  of  Judgment  on  conventional  lines,  "  That  picture  lie  !  No 
black  man  there." 

-  Patience,  Grenfell's  eldest  daughter,  was  a  young  woman  of  charming  person- 
ality, who  was  born  on  the  Congo,  educated  in  England  and  at  Brussels,  and  who 
returned  to  the  Congo  as  a  teacher  in  1897.  She  died  of  haMiiaturic  fever  in  1899, 
while  journeying  on  the  Peace. 


113.  PATIENCE  GRENl'ELL  AND  HER  SCHOOL  CHILDREN  AT  YAKUSU 


MISSIONARY  VICISSITUDES  241 


several  scrimmages  on  their  own  particular  lines.  As  no  one  wore 
boots,  the  kicking  was  not  of  the  full-bodied  type  we  see  at  home,  but 
the  play  with  the  hands  was  particularly  smart  and  effective.  The 
darkness  had  only  fallen  long  enough  for  the  camp  fires  on  the  sand  to 
be  well  alight  when  the  storm  that  had  veered  off  came  on  us  from  the 
north,  sweeping  down  the  channel  as  though  it  would  have  blown  us 
out  of  it.  But  though  we  encountered  the  full  force  of  the  wind,  we 
lay  in  quiet  water,  protected  by  the  sandbank.  The  sparks  from  the 
fires  and  the  sand  blew  on  board  in  very  appreciable  quantities,  the 
former  making  quite  a  grand  display  of  fireworks  as  they  blew  up  from 
windward.  By  midnight  all  was  quiet  again,  and  we  went  to  bed,  the 
tremendous  downpour  of  rain  having  dispelled  any  fear  of  damage 
from  the  sparks." 

Appreciations  of  scenery  : — 

"  Bolobo,  November  26  i88g.  Although  the  river  has  lost  all  the 
brilliant  contrast  of  yellow  sand  with  the  dark  waters  and  luxuriant 
foliage,  yet  at  this  season  the  hills  are  gloriously  verdure-clad,  and  very 
different  from  the  bare  brown  of  the  low-water  season.  The  various- 
tinted  leaves  now  show  their  brilliant  hues  to  perfection,  and  higher  up 
the  river,  on  the  iron-stone  land  the  early  leaves  of  many  trees  are 
golden-brown  or  lurid  red,  and  in  the  rays  of  the  sun  suggest  flaming 
forests  and  make  a  scene  one  could  never  forget.  The  cotton  trees 
(bombax)  that  two  months  since  threw  out  their  bare  arms  like  giant 
skeletons  far  above  the  heads  of  their  neighbours  have  shed  their  tiny 
blossoms  like  pantomime  snowstorms,  and  this  hoary  raiment  has  given 
place  to  the  glorious  garb  of  youthful  spring.  It  is  all  very  beautiful, 
and  our  hearts  go  forth  to  Him  who  made  it. 

"The  water  is  rising  rapidly  over  the  surface  of  the  land.  It  has 
been  one  of  the  modifying  effects  in  moulding  the  landscape,  for  the 
water  percolating  through  the  ground  and  finding  an  exit  at  the  foot  of 
the  hills  has  caused  perpendicular  landslips,  and  in  many  cases  has 
eaten  fantastic  caves  and  ravines  right  into  the  very  heart  of  the  hills. 
In  some  cases  the  result  is  as  though  a  volcano  had  burst  and  blown  a 
section  of  the  cone  clear  away ;  but  the  water  has  done  it  all — first  of 
all  caused  the  sand  to  slip,  and  afterwards  has  carried  it  away  to  the 
rapidly  flowing  Congo  and  thence  to  the  Atlantic.  It  seems  impossible 
that  the  white,  perpendicular  cliffs  so  characteristic  of  this  region  (the 
western  Upper  Congo)  can  be  of  sand  ;  but  there  is  just  sufficient 
aluminium  in  the  sand  to  make  the  particles  cohere  so  long  as  they 
are  dry." 

The  Congo  spring  time  : — 

"26th  of  December  1888  (near  Bolobo).  Wondrously  variegated 
trees,  crimson  tipped  with  gold — banks  lined  with  some  trees  of  vivid 
green  leaf,  while  the  foliage  of  others  is  lurid  masses  of  red,  shading  off 
into  yellow,  and  suggesting  very  vividly  long  lines  of  fire.  The  creepers 
too  are  in  full  bloom  :  convolvuli  of  graceful  shape  and  beautiful  colour, 
others  being  sweet-scented  flowers  that  remind  one  of  jasmine  and  honey- 
suckle. The  white-leaved  Mussoinda,  and  the  red-berried,  ever-abounding 

I. — R 


242    GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


"Christmas"  shrub  that  will  soon  provide  fruits  for  the  birds,  also 
enlivened  the  banks.  ...  Great  bombax  trees,  in  their  white  and  fluffy, 
snowy  vesture  (blossoms)  are  frequent,  and  their  fiery-headed  neigh- 
bours are  the  more  striking  by  reason  of  the  contrast." 

The  lavish  bloom  of  the  Crinuni  lilies — white  with  streaks  of 
pink  and  green  on  tlie  outer  aspect  of  the  petals — growing  in  a 
hundred  clumps  in  some  swampy  flat  of  thick,  fine,  emerald  grass ; 
the  white  or  the  scarlet  sepals  (like  Puinsettia  tufts)  of  the  various 
Miissa-nda  shrubs,  o-leaminor  in  the  dark  forest  growth  overhand- 


114.  crixi:m  lilies  of  the  upper  coxgo 


ing  the  Kwango  River  ;  the  trailing  bushes  of  the  Canioensia 
maxima  aniid  the  Qaunt  boulders  or  limestone  cracjs  of  the 
Cataract  region — the  flowers  large,  creamy-white,  orange- 
centred,  bronze-edged  round  the  crinkled  petals,  and  exhaling 
the  most  perfect  scent  of  cloves  .  .  .  these  are  all  pictures 
called  up  before  my  mental  vision  by  the  notes  of  Grenfell.  Or 
a  flight  of  pelicans  across  the  blue  mirror  of  the  Kasai  ;  snow- 
white  ibises  with  inky  plumes  and  inky  heads  and  necks  hunting 
for  frogs  in  the  Baloi  swamps  among  the  green  conferv(2  of  the 
rising  river  ;  white  herons  roosting  "like  a  snowfall,"  tier  above 
tier,  on  the  river-fronting  forest  in  the  quiet  creeks  of  the 
northern  Congo  ;  the  flights  of  huge  and  monstrous-ugly  fruit- 


MISSIONARY  VICISSITUDES 


243 


bats,  in  daylight,  across  the  Lukenye  River,  passing"  with  dis- 
cordant cries  from  fruit  tree  to  fruit  tree,  "  the  Devil's  notion 
of  a  bird  "  (as  another  traveller  describes  them). 

The  yellow-red  buffaloes  coming  down  to  drink  at  sunset  on 
the  sandy  bays  of  Lake  Leopold ;  the  bush-pigs  with  their 
orange-chestnut  hair  touched  up  and  enhanced  by  white  or 
black  manes  and  tufts  and  patches,  surprised  on  the  shore  as  the 
steamer  rounds  a  promontory  ;  black  and  white  scapulated 
crows,  brown  kites,  white  and  black  (pink-faced)  fishing 
vultures ;  the  tame  marabou 
stork  that  will  swallow  a  kitten, 
all  but  the  tip  of  its  tail,  and 
submit  to  the  kitten  being 
drao-oed  back  alive  from  its 
capacious  crop  ;  the  habits  of 
the  lung-fish,  which  can  live  in 
dry  mud  as  well  as  in  water' — 
these  are  some  of  the  pictures 
seen  and  enjoyed  by  mission- 
aries, not  one  of  whom  ever 
recorded  a  dull  day  or  a  bored 
feeling  in  his  diary. 

They  were  too  busy  to  be 
bored.  The  women  mission- 
aries had  their  sewing  classes, 
their  laundries  (with  washer- 
men as  well  as  washerwomen), 
their  cooking  lessons,  and  their 
reading  classes  for  girls.  They 
were  sensible  enough  to  take 

up  native  food  products  and  teach  the  children  and  married 
women  how  to  prepare  them  by  better,  cleaner  methods, 
how  to  cook  them  appetizingly.  There  were  the  schools 
for  babies,  sharp  children,  hulking  boys,  and  grown  women. 
And  the  individuality  of  each  scholar — no  sameness  in 
these  wild  natures  —  some  were  affectionate,  grateful  as 
dogs,  passionately  devoted  to  the  kind  mistress  ;  some 
were  sulky  and  might  perhaps  slumber  and  sulk  unapprecia- 
tively  for  years  until  a  chance  incident  touched  and  revealed 
the  soul. 


115.   CAMOK.NSIA  MAXIMA 


'  Here  is  one  of  Grenfell's  many  natural-history  notes  :  "  The  Protopterus  or 
lung-fish  (known  at  Stanley  Pool  as  njoiitbo)  digs  its  hole  in  muddy  ground,  and  makes 
several  avenues  leading  away  from  the  central  cavity  which  serve  as  different  lines  of 
retreat.  As  the  water  falls  it  deepens  its  hole,  but  does  not  'hibernate,'  as  is  reported 
of  it." 


244   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


"  Losere  sold  a  woman  some  two  months  ago,  but  kept  her  child, 
a  little  girl  of  two  years.  Now  that  the  little  one  has  dysentery  he 
threatens  to  throw  her  into  the  river.  Phi-ila,  of  all  the  girls,  was 
moved  to  beg  us  to  ask  for  the  little  child.  In  five  minutes  the  matter 
was  all  arranged,  and  Phi-ila  is  nurse  and  foster-mother  ...  so  happy ! 
.  .  ."  A  few  days  later :  "  The  poor  child  died  .  .  .  Phi-ila  is  dis- 
consolate." 

An  incident  like  this  is  recorded  with  zest :  for  much  of  the 
mission  teaching  is  aimed  at  enforcing  the  rights  of  women: — 

"  One  of  the  mission  girls  at  Stanley  Falls  was  sold  to  three  or  four 
different  men  one  after  the  other,  but  refused  to  be  the  wife  of  any- 
body who  could  not  read  and  write  like  herself.    She  was  beaten,  put 


1 1 6.  PROTOPTERUS  DOLLOI,  THE  LUNG-FISH  OF  THE  UPPER  CONGO 


in  the  stocks,  and  tied  up  several  times,  but  was  absolute  mistress  of 
the  situation  as  far  as  getting  married  was  concerned,  and  the  money 
had  to  be  returned.  Now  she  is  married  to  the  lad  of  her  choice.  She 
said  she  was  not  going  to  be  one  of  a  crowd  ;  she  wanted  a  husband  of 
her  own." 

On  the  23rd  of  December  1896  Grenfell  notes  that  the  first 
Bolobo  girl  has  put  on  European  clothes  and  is  going  to  form 
part  of  the  household  of  a  missionary's  wife.  At  the  close  of 
1 896  he  writes  : — 

"There  are  not  lacking  signs  that  fill  us  with  hope  for  the  future. 
The  chiefs  no  longer  exercise  their  claim  of  life  and  death,  and  are 
losing  their  hold.  They  are  evidently  having  a  bad  time  of  it  with 
some  of  the  young  sparks  in  the  town.  To-day  the  girls  are  beginning 
to  act  independently.  They  see  the  mission  boys  and  girls  marrying 
as  they  wish,  and  do  not  want  to  marry  the  oldest  man  in  their  homes." 


MISSIONARY  VICISSITUDES 

A  cry  from  the  heart  of  a  much-beaten  wife !  — 


245 


"  I  ith  of  August  1894."  (Bolobo  for  five  years  has  been  a  prey  to 
constant  fighting  between  chief  and  chief,  together  with  incessant 
private  vcndette.)  "  Mumbele  badly  wounded  in  the  face.  His  wife, 
Dilongo,  says,  '  Oh  that  he  might  die ! '  I  am  afraid  that  there  are 
a  great  many  whose  hearts  eclio  the  same  sentiment.  Only  yes- 
terday one  of  the 
neighbouring  chiefs 
said  to  us,  'Mum- 
bele? He  will  die  one 
of  these  days,  and 
won't  know  death  is 
coming.' " 

"  28th  of  January 
1894.  Chief  Ngoie 
has  left  this  evening 
for  Stanley  Pool.  The 
slave  he  gave  Bo- 
nongo  has  gone  with 
him,  and  taken  ten 
brass  rods  belonging 
to  Bonongo's  mother. 
Great  outcry!  Bihima 
(another  wife  of 
Ngoie)  was  in  great 
trouble.  She  had  just 
had  a  flogging  on  ac- 
count of  being  twenty 
brass  rods  short  in 
her  account  (Ngoie 
said).  She  sent  to 
Patience  ^  to  borrow 
the  rods  so  that  she 
might  settle  with  her 
lord  and  master.  She 
lost  half  of  one  of  her 

,  .,  .  117.  THE  MISSION  LAUNDRY  MAN,  BOPOTO 

ears  a  while  ago  in  a  '  ' 

similar  difficulty  with  the  said  lord  and  master." 


In  1894  Grenfell  notes  that  the  local  medicine-men  in  the 
vicinity  of  a  Baptist  mission  station  are  beginning  to  fear  to 
attribute  every  death  to  w^itchcraft,  and  now  often  bring 
it  in  as  mambu  manzambi=?Sh\x  of  God.  He  notes  else- 
where that  in  the  old  style  the  medicine-man  would  be  con- 
sulted immediately  after  the  death  and  possibly  burial  as  to  the 
cause.    He  would  then  dig:  a  hole  over  the  grrave  and  make- 


1  Mrs.  Grenfell. 


?46   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


believe  to  see  the  object  that  caused  the  death  and  shoot  it,  or 
else  get  into  the  hole  and  thrash  all  round  it  with  a  stick  which 
had  been  previously  smeared  with  the  blood  of  a  fowl's  head 
concealed  about  his  person  for  the  purpose.  He  then  waves 
the  blood-stained  stick  to  show  that  if  he  has  not  actually  killed 
the  "  ndoki  "  he  has  at  any  rate  badly  wounded  it. 

T  he  women- 
missionaries  of  this 
and  other  missions, 
Protestant  and 
Catholic,  have 
taken  a  special  and 
successful  interest 
in  hospital  and  dis- 
pensary  work,  in 

I         I^SS^H^iHPV^  ^         ^^"^  rescuing  and  train- 

ijH   i^^^'Tl'*''' i    ^1  '-^^  orphans,  and 
'     *  ^  .  ^    '   ......  attempting  to 

check  the  terrible 
mortality  among 
the  native  children. 
They  are  gradually 
instructing  the 
mothers  on  the 
proper  feeding  of 
infants  and  on 
reasonable  reme- 
dies for  childish 
complaints  — na- 
tive notions  of 
such  medical  treat- 
ment being  drastic 
to  the  decree  of 
child  murder.^ 

Miss  Lily  de  Hailes  and  Mrs.  William  Forfeitt,  Mrs.  White- 
head, Mrs.  Clark,  and  Mrs.  Howell  have  been  particularly 
successful  in  this  work  amonost  the  women  and  children  of  the 


1 1 8.    A  SEWING  CLASS  AT  BOPOTO 


'  "Women  on  the  Upper  Congo  stuff  three  or  four  days'  old  infants  with  boluses 
of  boiled  manioc  pulp  (kwanga)." 

"  Hartsock  tells  of  his  watching  a  mother  wash  her  infant  —  he  counted 
107  dips  under  the  surface  of  the  river,  another  day  48  dips.  Just  as  the  poor 
creature  is  about  to  howl  it  is  soused  under  water." 

"  Scrivener  tells  me  he  saw  the  mothers  keep  their  babies  quiet  at  Banza 
Manteka  by  pouring  water  over  their  heads  and  giving  them  a  regular  douche.  They 
brought  water  to  the  chapel  for  that  purpose."    (Grenfell's  Diary.) 


MISSIONARY  VICISSITUDES 


western  and  northern  Congo,  and  have  appreciably  checked 
depopulation  by  saving  many  an  unfortunate  babe,  starved  or 
diseased,  orphaned  or  abandoned. 

The  men  and  women  of  the  Mission  met  on  common 
ground  and  in  merry  emulation  in  the  schools,  the  dispensaries 
and  the  garden.  But  whilst  the  women's  special  province  was 
the  teaching  of  domestic  arts,  the  men  dealt  separately  with 
industries  more  appropriate  to  the  male  sex — printing,  the 


119.   MRS.  GRENFELL'S  SEWING  CLASS,  BOLOBO 

blacksmith's  shop,  brick-  and  tile-making,  timber-cutting, 
cabinet-making,  and  horticulture.^ 

As  in  Uganda,  so  in  the  regions  of  the  Upper  Congo  the 
natives  are  eager  to  acquire  the  art  of  writing  ;  they  are  quick 
to  realize  the  importance  of  this  means  of  communication  be- 
tween distant  friends  and  comrades. 

"  Monsembi  boys  learning  to  write  are  very  desirous  of  letting 
their  friends  know  they  understand  the  mystic  signs  on  paper  and 
how  to  make  them,  and  take  every  occasion  to  send  messages 
chalked  on  chips  of  timber  instead  of  conveying  them  verbally. 
One  boy  said   to  his  master,  '  I  am  going  into  the  town  to-day 

^  For  years  Messrs.  Sutton,  of  Reading,  have  supplied  the  Baptist  Mission 
gratuitously  with  large  consignments  of  vegetable  and  flower  seeds  suited  to  the 
tropics  and  these  have  thus  found  their  way  into  native  horticulture  on  the  Congo. 


248   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


to  a  big  palaver.  I  shall  not  be  able  to  hear  the  bell  because 
of  the  noise  we  shall  make,  but  if  you  send  for  me  I  will  come ; 

only  do  not  send  a  boy  with  a 
message:  let  him  bring  a  little 
note  ! ' "  (Grenfell.) 


I  20.   "HOW  THEY  LOOK  WHEN  THEY 
COME  FIRST  TO  THE  MISSION" 


Many  books  —  educational, 
religious,  linofuistic  —  have  been 
printed  and  bound  by  natives  of 
Congoland  at  the  presses  of 
the  Baptist  Mission,  at  those 
likewise  of  the  other  Protestant 
and  Catholic  mission  stations, 
and  a  good  deal  of  the  official 
printing  of  the  State  is  carried 
out  by  mission  -  trained  men. 
At  the  Antwerp  Exhibition  of 
1895  the  Baptist  Mission  was 
well  represented  with  printing 
and  bookbinding  exhibits  and 
with  trained  artisans  from  the 
Conoo.  The  exhibition  of  the 
skill  of  these  mission  -  trained 
operatives  was  not  well  re- 
Socialists,  who  issued  a  pamphlet 


ceived  by  the  Belgian 
complaining  that 
the  Congo  State 
was  training  "  dirty 
niggers  to  take 
the  bread  out  of 
our  mouths." 

Weddino-  feasts 
of  their  scholars  or 
adherents,  athletic 
sports,  concerts, 
picnics,  shooting- 
expeditions  (when 
the  nuisance  of 
plantation-destroy- 
ing elephants,  hip- 
pos, bush  -  pigs, 
and  buftaloes  re- 
quired abatement,  or  terrorizing  leopards  or  crocodiles  pro- 
voked reprisals),  and  the  visits  of  other  missionaries  of  different 


121.  "after  six  months" 


MISSIONARY  VICISSITUDES 


faiths  and  sects ;^  all  these  breaks  in  what  might  have  be- 
come a  monotony  of  well-doing  saved  mission  life  from  the 
danger  of  insipidity.  But  in  the  doings  of  the  natives  around 
them  there  was  quite  sufficient  excitement — at  any  rate  from 
1883  to  1900 — to  avert  stagnation  in  the  atmosphere  of 
reliofious  and  secular  instruction.  Here  are  some  extracts 
from  Grenfell's  diary  to  illustrate  the  "alarums  and  excur- 


122.   THE  GARDEN  OF  A  B.M.S.  STATION,  UPPER  CONGO 


sions "  in  the  neighbourhood  of  a  mission  station  in  the  old 
unruly  days. 

1  "22nd  of  January  1894  (Bolobo).  Antoittctte  (eight  days  from  the  Pool)  called 
on  her  way  to  Zongo  Rapids  (Miibangi),  having  on  board  Bishop  Augouard.  He  is 
going  thither  with  four  missionaries  to  found  a  station.  Part  of  the  explorer  Monteil's 
expedition  is  on  board.  A  noticeable  feature  in  their  outfit  consists  of  sectional  boats 
of  aluminium,  the  sections  having  axles  and  wheels  so  that  they  may  fulfil  the  service 
of  waggons.  The  Bishop  was  very  gracious,  and  referred  to  the  early  days  when  we 
met  (thirteen  years  ago)  on  the  Mpozo,  and  to  the  changes  that  have  taken  place 
since  that  time.  He  tells  me  that  the  choir  of  his  cathedral  has  been  consecrated, 
and  that  the  stained-glass  windows  presented  by  the  Prince  de  Croy  and  Mr.  Gres- 
hoff  are  very  effective.    The  height  of  the  bell  turret  is  twenty  metres."  (Grenfell.) 

On  another  occasion  we  find  Grenfell  and  the  Peace  coming  to  the  rescue  of 
Bishop  Augouard's  party  when  the  Bishop's  steamer  Lcoji  XIII  had  broken  down, 
and  the  French  Mission  sending  to  their  Baptist  colleagues  a  magnificent  present 
of  carved  ivories  in  acknowledgment  of  the  friendly  help  afforded  by  the  Peace.  I 
find  in  the  records  of  the  Baptist  Mission  no  record  of  any  but  pleasant  relations  with 
the  French  and  Belgian  Catholics  on  the  Upper  Congo.  The  old-fashioned  nineteenth- 
century  spitefulness  between  different  sections  of  the  Christian  Church  does  not  seem 
to  have  penetrated  east  of  Stanley  Pool  or  west  of  Tanganyika. 


250  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


He  writes  in  i8go:  — 

"  Lots  of  humbugging  all  round "  (that  is  to  say,  in  reference  to 
inquiries  as  to  people  being  killed  at  burial  ceremonies).  "  They 
cordially  despise  our  powers  of  observation,  and  think  we  are  easily 
hoodwinked.  Stanley  was  quite  right  when  he  said  that  the  black 
man  despises  the  white,  thinks  him  rich  and  strong,  very  '  funny,'  but 
withal  a  fool  to  be  worked." 


"  Bolobo,  5th  of  May  1894.  Our  new  home  is  being  built  on  the 
Mandeln  boundary  between  the  Ngoie  and  Bobangi  towns.    It  has  been 


123.    KRICK-MAKERS  AT  I5.M.S.  STATION,  VAKUSU 


the  custom  when  making  laws  between  these  two  sections  to  contribute 
to  the  cost  of  a  slave,  then  to  break  his  arms  and  legs,  and  burj^  him  up 
to  his  neck  by  way  of  putting  a  seal  to  the  new  law.  On  digging  a 
hole  for  one  of  the  posts  of  our  new  house,  we  came  across  one  of  these 
skeletons  in  its  vertical  position. 

"6th  of  May  1894.  Baptismal  service  in  Bolobo.  ]\Iafuta,  Risasi, 
Fataki,  and  Nga  Makala  joined  the  Church.  Town  in  considerable 
excitement  about  the  disappearance  of  Ekila  (the  wife  of  a  man  just 
dead).  Part  say  that  she  has  been  buried  with  her  dead  husband 
yesterday.  Others  say  she  has  run  away.  It  transpired  this  evening 
that  she  is  in  hiding  with  one  of  Ngoie's  wives. 

"  9th  of  May.  More  seeking  for  Ekila.  The  corpse  is  still  unburied. 


MISSIONARY  VICISSITUDES  251 

Bokatula  ya  Manga  demanded  her  from  Lokumo  this  morning. 
Lokumo  said,  '  Your  man  died  in  my  house.  You  took  his  body  away, 
and  all  the  women  went  to  cry.  Have  I  been  to  take  your  woman  ? ' 
Bokatula  proceeded  to  Ngoie's  place,  and  said,  '  I  have  come  for  Ekila.' 
'Have  I  taken  Ekila?'  'If  you  don't  hand  her  over  there  will  be  a 
fight.'  '  I  am  ready,'  said  Ngoie ;  '  let's  go  out  to  the  erobie  (grass 
land)  and  settle  it' 

"  I  am  told  the  corpse  is  very  '  high.'  One  poor  slave  has  already 
been  killed,  a  man  bought  from  the  back  (Batende).  Ekotobongo  said 
many  times  before  he  died,  '  Mind,  when  I  go,  that  Ekila  is  not  left 
behind.  If  she  is  not  buried  with  me  I  will  come  and  haunt  you.'  His 
friends  are  therefore  afraid  of  Ekotobongo's  ghost,  and  Ngoie,  Lokumo, 
and  others  are  afraid  of  '  Bula  Matadi.'  ...  I  have  learnt  that  Ekoto- 


124.    PORTUGUESE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  MlbhlOX  STATION,  iMALANJE, 
PORTUGUESE  CONGO 


bongo  is  now  buried  in  the  bush,  the  townspeople  being  afraid  to  have 
him  for  a  near  neighbour,  so  they  have  not  put  him  as  usual  under  the 
floor  of  his  house.  Eyoka  says  it  is  burying  for  the  pigs.  Whether 
that  refers  to  the  manner  of  it,  or  that  when  the  rain  comes  the  pigs 
will  find  the  place  and  devour  the  corpse,  I  do  not  know.  .  .  ." 

"March  11  1895.  J-  H.  tells  me  of  a  ghost  story  at  Lulongo.  A 
certain  woman  slave  had  been  killed,  and  her  spirit  haunted  the  path 
by  the  place  where  she  was  buried.  She  would  follow  people  and  call 
after  them.  '  I  know  what  is  the  matter,'  said  one,  '  she  died  hungry. 
Let  me  have  some  ntuka  and  palm  oil  and  fish.'  He  visited  the  place, 
and  when  the  ghost  came  out  he  said,  '  All  right !  I  know  what  is  the 
matter.  You  are  hungry.  We  have  brought  some  food.'  The  ghost 
was  laid  " 


25^   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 

Where  they  are  harmless,  Grenfell  is  tender  of  local  cus- 
toms and  observances : — 

"  I  fell  down.  The  boys  saw,  and  cried,  '  Mpoto,'  and  I  have  to  pay. 
If  anyone  of  position  falls  down,  the  onlookers  cry  'Mpoto'  and 
claim  a  fee.  A  chief  pays  200  rods.  It  cost  me  more,  for  Boyambula 
said,  'You  are  Ngoie's  people,  we  are  nobodies.'  This  distinction  is 
made  now  and  again,  and  I  am  careful  to  make  it  plain  that  we  are 
here  as  much  for  Babangi  as  for  Bamoye,  so  paid  the  mpoto'.'' 

In  these  diaries  there  are  many  notes  on  reliorious  teachino-. 


125.  .SCHOLARS  AT  A  PORTUGUESE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  MISSION  STATION, 
PORTUGUESE  CONGO 


especially  for  the  translation  of  Christian  dogmas  and  meta- 
phors. The  Trinity  was  a  crreat  stumbling-block  to  the  out- 
spoken Congo  peoples,  who  often  complained  in  Grenfell's  hear- 
ing that  while  their  teachers  insisted  there  was  but  one  God, 
they  nevertheless  enjoined  on  them  the  worship  of  "  two."  The 
diarist  adds  in  a  note  that  it  was  difficult  to  ensure  recognition 
for  the  Holy  Ghost  as  an  independent  member  of  the  Trinity. 

Some  of  the  native  evangelists  were  inconveniently  zealous. 
If  they  observed  a  man  or  woman  sleeping  in  the  audience  at 
any  service  or  lecture  they  instantly  made  them  stand  up,  and 
in  obdurate  cases  laid  on  whacks  to  rouse  the  slumbrous  to  the 
full  sense  of  their  enormities.    Another  over-zealous  convert 


MISSIONARY  VICISSITUDES  253 


brouoht  his  wife  to  the  Mission  and  accused  her  of  sin  in  that 
she  had  been  "  o-rinding  her  teeth."  His  idea  arose  from  a 
distortion  of  the  passage,  "Where  there  shall  be  weeping 
and  gnashing  of  teeth " !  Meantime  to  prevent  listless- 
ness  during  discourses  (especially  when  teaching  was  new  to 
the  people  or  the  teacher  imperfectly  acquainted  with  the 
vernacular)  the  natives  were  told  that  they  might  bring  some 
light  handiwork  to  the  schoolroom  or  chapel,  which  could  be 
an  occupation  to  their  idle  fingers,  whilst  their  minds  were 


126.  MAN  AND  WOMAN  OF  THE  NGOMBE  TR113E,  ADHERENTS  OF  THE 
BAPTIST  MISSION,  BOPOTO 


occupied  with  the  missionary's  discourse.  Several  women  of 
obtuseness  (rather  than  malice  prepense)  made  this  suggestion 
ridiculous  by  cracking  palm  nuts  with  hammers  or  splitting  fire- 
wood with  such  a  din  that^the  exhortation  fell  on  deafened  ears, 
Grenfell  enjoys  recording  occasional  anecdotes  of  this  kind,  no 
doubt  to  show  that  the  converts  still  retained  in  their  dispositions 
traces  of  the  old  Adam  : — 

"  One  of  the  native  evangelists,  who  had  previously  been  an  nganga 
or  medicine-man,  had  in  his  previous  capacity  taken  many  fees.  After 
his  conversion  to  Christianity  he  was  challenged  by  his  former  dupes  to 
return  the  money  he  had  received  as  fees  for  his  services.    This  he 


254  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


declined  to  do,  saying,  '  At  that  time  I  was  serving  the  Devil,  and  these 
fees  were  the  wages  1  got  for  my  service. '  " 

"  A  native  youth  from  the  Upper  Congo  of  weakly  build  admitted 
to  me  that  he  was  only  fooling  the  people  by  getting  money  out  of 
them  for  charms.  '  But  you  see,'  he  said,  '  I  cannot  work,  and  I  jnust 
live  somehow  ! '  " 

Here  is  an  episode,  culled  from  the  diary,  illustrating  the 
leave-taking"  of  a  missionary  who  after  eight  years'  work 
amongst  the  restless,  excitable  Babangi  had  won  their  affection 
and  confidence : — 

"  1 8th  July  1894.  Darby  is  evidently  very  popular,  for  the  people 
are  much  averse  to  his  leaving.  They  have  been  calling  him  all  sorts 
of  bad  names  because  he  leaves  them.  '  You  know  our  language  and 
can  teach  us,  and  now  you  are  going  to  leave  us  in  the  dark  again. 
You  are  bad  !  You  are  bad  !  What  are  you  going  for?'  He  replies, 
'Don't  I  want  to  see  my  father,  sisters,  and  brothers?  That  is  not  bad?' 
'  But  what  do  you  want  to  go  all  that  way  for?  Are  we  not  all  your 
people?  Are  we  not  your  brothers  and  sisters?  Don't  we  all  belong  to 
you?'  'But  perhaps  I  want  to  bring  a  wife  to  help  me!'  'Oh! 
That's  no  reason.  Look  here  (pointing  to  a  circle  of  women) ;  one,  two, 
three,  four,  five,  six — take  which  one  you  like — take  them  all! !  !'" 

But  no  picture  of  missionary  life  on  the  banks  of  the  Upper 
Congo  would  be  complete  without  allusion  to  the  difficulties 
connected  with  navigation.  The  mission  boats,  canoes,  steamers 
must  be  constantly  plying  between  station  and  station,  schools 
and  workshops,  the  villages  of  Christian  natives  and  those  still 
remaining  in  heathenry. 

Such  adventures  as  are  here  described  could  of  course 
be  told  of  the  American  members  of  the  Congo  Balolo  and 
Presbyterian  missions,  the  Roman  Catholic  missionaries,  and 
other  propagandists  on  the  Upper  Congo,  besides  the  traders 
and  State  officials.  They  only  possess  special  interest  because 
— recorded  as  they  are  just  after  the  incident  has  happened — 
they  exhibit  vividly  the  difficulties  attending  steamer  traffic  on 
these  nine  thousand  miles  of  Central  African  rivers,  the  unfailing- 
good  temper  of  Grenfell  and  his  colleagues,  and  the  wonderful 
aptitude  of  the  Upper  Congo  negroes  by  which,  after  a  few  years' 
tuition,  they  could  be  turned  from  naked,  noisy  cannibals  into 
quiet,  workmanlike  mechanicians  and  engineers,  with  just  here 
and  there  a  relapse  into  indifference  and  thoughtlessness  : — 

"Bolobo,  March  18  1897.  Heavy  weather.  Having  the  lighter 
Bristol  and  the  s.s.  Goodwill^  on  the  beach,  heavily  laden  for  the  run  up- 


'  The  Goodwill  was  the  fine  new  steamer  launched  at  Bolobo  in  1893. 


MISSIONARY  VICISSITUDES 


257 


river,  we  are  anxious  to  get  away,  for  water  is  dead  low,  and  heavy 
weather  is  especially  try^ing  to  our  craft  at  this  season. 

"March  19.  At  9  p.m.  last  evening  a  strong  wind  from  the  south 
decided  me  to  anchor  the  Bristol  separate  from  the  Goodnn/l ;  so  we 
had  the  Peace,  Bristol,  and  Goodwill  each  within  half  a  length  of  the 
other,  and  the  outside  one  not  far  enough  from  the  rocks  to  allow 
of  their  swinging  round.  By  9.30  the  Goodivill  had  swung  upstream 
to  within  dangerous  proximity  of  the  reef,  and  we  had  to  get  a  stern 
anchor  out  downstream.  But  the  canoe  had  been  so  lifted  on  to  the 
beach  by  the  heavy  surf  that  it  took  twenty  men  nearly  an  hour  to  get 
it  off.  However,  by  half-past  ten,  and  after  several  intervals  of  absolute 
darkness  (for  though  we  had  three  lanterns,  heavier  gusts  then  usual 
would  at  times  put  them  all  out)  we  managed  so  to  fix  things  that  we 

____  ,  ^ 


128.  THE  "peace"  damaged  IN  A  STORM 


were  able  to  go  to  bed  and  sleep,  all  the  more  readily  because  the  wind 
was  falling,  though  the  surf  rolled  in  on  the  beach  as  it  does  roll  after 
the  wind  has  had  full  play  with  the  Congo  water  for  six  miles.  .  .  . 

"  March  20.  This  morning  we  had  nearly  an  hour's  work  to  get  the 
steamer  off  the  beach,  for  the  wind  had  blown  her  stern  on  to  the  sand 
with  such  force  that  fifty  men  pushing  off  could  not  make  her  budge  an 
inch.  After  some  attempts  we  resorted  to  the  use  of  a  long,  heavy 
plank  lever  inserted  under  the  stern  of  the  steamer  in  a  hole  dug  in 
the  sand.  With  this  piece  of  timber  as  a  fulcrum  and  some  twenty 
men  on  the  plank  the  bow  of  the  steamer  was  sufficiently  eased  from  the 
sand  to  allow  of  the  pushing  men  to  move  her  a  few  inches.  Another 
lift  after  another  hole  had  been  dug  and  the  fulcrum  rearranged,  and 
we  moved  a  foot.  A  third  attempt,  and  we  were  free  and  swinging  by 
the  anchor  where  it  had  run  out  astern  to  prevent  our  being  blown  on 
the  rocks,  which  we  could  not  have  avoided  if  we  had  tried  to  steam 
I. — s 


258   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


out  astern,  for  we  should  have  been  on  the  reef  before  we  could  have  got 
any  way  on  the  steamer. 

"At  last  we  were  clear  and  our  stern  anchor  aboard  ;  we  blew  a 
farewell  on  the  whistle,  dipped  our  flag  by  way  of  good-bye  to  our 
friends  on  the  beach  who  had  come  to  see  us  off.  As  soon  as  we  got 
on  our  course  we  rang  three  on  the  signal  gong,  equal  to  '  All  right, 
full  speed  ahead.'  But  we  had  not  got  full  way  on  when  the  water 
began  to  break  over  the  gunwale  of  the  forty-foot  canoe  we  had  on  the 
port  side ;  indeed,  it  also  came  over  the  side  of  the  Bristol,  a  fifty-foot 
lighter  we  had  on  the  starboard  side  ;  but  this  being  decked,  it  was  a 
matter  of  no  consequence. 

"  To  prevent  sinking  at  once,  we  rang  the  signal  for  slow.  But  even 


129.  THE  WHO  HELPED  TO  PUT  THE  "  PEACE "  RIGHT  AG.\IN 


at  slow  the  water  came  in  faster  than  we  could  bale  it  out,  so  we 
stopped  ;  but  then  the  steamer  lost  steering  way  and  broached  to,  and 
the  canoe  filled  and  would  have  gone  down,  but  that  it  was  of  light 
wood,  and  also  had  been  firmly  secured  to  the  after  bollards,  as  well  as 
to  the  towing-boom  forward.  By  this  time  we  had  come  into  sight  of 
a  wind-bound  steamer  waiting  in  a  sheltered  bay  for  the  waves  to 
moderate  before  she  ventured  to  face  them.  We  were  going  with  the 
wind,  so  it  was  a  very  different  matter  for  us,  though  bad  enough, 
seeing  we  had  to  run  ashore  and  beach  the  canoe  before  we  could  bale 
her  out.  However,  we  managed  to  get  just  a  little  more  than  a  mile 
in  the  first  hour  of  our  run  and  to  make  another  start.  By  careful  man- 
oeuvring, and  going  slowly,  we  managed  to  run  a  mile  and  a  half, 
passing  the  wind-bound  steamer,  when  down  went  the  canoe  again,  and 
again  we  had  to  run  to  the  beach  to  bale  her  out,  and  fought  the 
troublesome  substitute  for  the  boat  we  lost  last  year.    By  this  time, 


MISSIONARY  VICISSITUDES  261 


however,  the  worst  of  the  water  was  behind  us,  for  we  had  got  into 
a  sheltered  region  behind  an  island,  and  we  were  able  to  ring  '  All 
right,  full  speed  ahead,'  and  this  time  without  having  to  ring  down 
again  till  an  hour  or  so  later,  when  we  ran  on  a  shoal,  with  only 
three  feet  of  water  where  last  season  there  was  a  deep  channel.  But 
pulling  the  helm  hard  over,  and  carefully  feeling  our  way  with  the 
lead,  we  were  not  long 
before  we  struck  the 
new  channel  the  water 
had  cut  for  itself 

"  The  trouble  with 
the  canoe  had  quite 
spoilt  my  breakfast, 
though  I  managed 
while  on  my  feet  to  get 
a  spoonful  or  two  of 
porridge,  thus  satisfy- 
ing my  most  pressing 
claims  of  appetite.  By 
the  time  dinner  was 
ready  I  was  very  hun- 
gry, but  so  many  had 
been  seasick  on  ac- 
count of  the  heavy 
weather  that  every- 
thing was  late.  By 
this  time,  too,  heavy 
clouds  to  the  south- 
west began  to  bank 
up  over  Bolobo  Hill, 
and  the  lightning  we 
saw  and  the  thunder 
we  heard  told  us  we 
had  got  away  only 
just  in  time  to  escape 
another  storm.  But 
the  clouds  were  begin- 
ning to  work  round  to 
east  and  south.  So 
long  as  they  were  131. 
somewhat  behind  us 
we  had  little  fear.  By 

three  o'clock,  however,  they  had  so  gained  on  us  that  they  were  well 
abreast,  and  it  became  needful  to  seek  shelter  to  windward,  not  always 
an  easy  task  on  a  river  like  the  Congo  with  its  long  open  stretches. 

"  We  had  just  barely  reached  a  promising  little  channel  between 
two  islands  when  the  wind  broke  over  us  with  full  tornado  force,  playing 
havoc  with  the  tops  of  the  trees,  and  lashing  the  main  stream  into  fury. 
Protected  as  we  were  by  the  forest,  we  felt  but  little  of  it,  though  we 
deemed  it  needful  to  warp  into  a  new  position  lest  a  tree  might  fall 
across  our  steamer,  an  accident  that  has  occurred  before  now  on  the 


liUNGUJU,  lllK  ,Mlb.>10N  KNGINEER,  AND  HIS  WIFE 
(Bungudi  was  a  Bateke  boy,  trained  by  Grenfell.) 


262    GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Congo.  Just  before  night  set  in  the  rain  began  to  fall  as  only  tropical 
rain  can,  and  though  it  only  kept  up  for  a  couple  of  hours  things  were 
damp  by  the  time  it  was  finished,  for  such  rain  driven  by  the  fag-end  of 
a  tornado  finds  out  every  corner  and  makes  things  uncomfortably  moist. 
We  must  have  had  over  a  couple  of  inches  of  rain  in  two  hours. 

"  This  delay  with  that  of  the  morning  quite  prevented  our  getting 
to  Nkunda  as  we  hoped  in  time  to  spend  Saturday  night  and  Sunday 
among  the  people  of  that  important  trading-place  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Alima,  on  the  French  side  of  the  river.  As  we  felt  we  could  not  keep 
our  crew  all  day  in  the  reeking  swamp  where  we  had  put  up  to  avoid 
the  storm,  we  got  up  steam,  and  after  four  hours  of  easy  going  reached 
our  hoped-for  port  for  the  day.  After  an  informal  sort  of  Sunday-school 
on  board  in  the  afternoon  whereat  Patty  played  her  violin,  Bungudi  his 
melodeon,  and  the  dozen  or  more  children  we  had  on  board  sang 
lustily,  we  adjourned  on  shore  for  a  meeting  among  the  people.  The 
music  was  a  great  attraction,  and  we  got  a  hundred  or  more  of  them  to 
listen  to  messages  from  both  the  Law  and  the  Gospel.  The  'Law' 
made  some  of  them  wince  perceptibly,  for  they  had  tied  up  a  poor 
creature  accused  of  witchcraft  and  were  preparing  to  'cut  the  witch  out 
of  him '  (a  proceeding  involving  death)  as  evidence  of  the  truth  of  their 
charge. 

"  By  daj'light  the  next  morning  steam  was  up  and  we  were  well 
under  weigh  when  the  sun  rose  in  a  splendour  all  peculiar  to  this  season 
of  storms.  It  was  a  glorious  sight,  and  our  hearts  involuntarily  wor- 
shipped the  Author  of  it  all.  .  .  . 

"  We  met  at  Bunga  an  agent  of  the  Dutch  house  who  a  month  or 
two  ago  left  Brazzaville  in  the  ill-fated  Alima  for  the  upper  Sanga, 
taking  with  him  some  50,000  francs'  worth  of  barter  goods  for  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  factory.  Unfortunately,  the  Alima  sank  in  deep  water 
and  is  a  total  loss  for  the  French  Government,  who  are  now  left  with 
only  one  steamer  afloat  of  all  their  fleet.  .  .  .  Just  now  Bunga  is  dry 
enough,  the  water  having  only  just  begun  to  rise  after  a  fall  of  nearly 
eighteen  feet.  When  the  flood  was  at  its  maximum  the  agents  of  the 
S.A.  Co.  could  only  leave  their  verandah  by  means  of  a  canoe.  The 
Dutch  house  is  just  above  high-water  mark,  and  has  not  been  flooded. 
It  occupies  the  only  spot  that  is  not  annually  covered.  .  .  ." 

"  29th  of  March  1898.  We  started  this  morning  for  Bonginda,  but 
although  we  left  in  good  time,  the  sandbanks  were  so  numerous  that 
we  did  not  get  in  till  after  dark.  Off  Bisanga  we  had  quite  a  difficulty 
to  get  into  the  channel,  a  long,  oblique  sandbank  some  two  miles  in 
length  ending  in  a  crest  one  could  plainly  see  over  which  the  river 
flowed  as  over  a  weir.  Excepting  at  its  extremity  close  to  the  left 
bank,  it  appeared  nowhere  to  have  more  than  eighteen  inches  of  w-ater 
over  it,  and  less  than  a  foot  over  by  far  the  greater  part  of  it.  The 
only  available  channel  was  about  two  fathoms  deep,  but  as  it  was  not 
much  broader  than  twelve  feet,  and  as  the  shore  line  was  bristling  with 
snags,  it  would  have  been  a  difficult  pass  even  in  good  weather, 
whereas  we  had  quite  a  heavy  wind  blowing  upstream,  and  our  vessel 
(eighty-four  feet  long)  did  not  swing  round  quickly  enough.  So  we  had 
to  back  out  and  try  again.    The  next  attempt  was  al.-o  a  failure.  The 


MISSIONARY  VICISSITUDES  263 


third  time  we  fetched  up  against  a  snag,  but  the  fourth  was  a  success, 
and  we  got  through.  I  have  never  made  the  passage  up  the  Lulongo  at 
such  low  water  along  the  channel  between  the  island  and  the  bend  where 
Bonginda  comes  into  view  and  the  mainland.  We  had  to  cross  four 
times  from  island  to  mainland  before  we  got  through,  and  it  was  only 
by  scraping  the  trees  just  below  Bonginda  that  we  managed  to  find 
water  enough.  Coming  down,  we  simply  charged  the  bank  both  here 
and  at  Bosonga,  and 
cut  a  way  through ; 
for  the  crests  of  these 
banks  are  but  narrow, 
though  quite  wide 
enough  to  resist  the 
passage  of  a  steamer 
against  currents. 
Steam  plus  current 
gave  us  sufficient  im- 
petus to  jump  the 
banks  as  we  came 
down.  Providing  the 
sandbanks  are  not 
wide  enough  to  take 
the  speed  off  our  go- 
ing, it  is  not  difficult 
for  a  sharp-edged 
steamer  like  the  Good- 
will X.o  cut  the  needful 
groove  through  them, 
especially  when  she  is 
laden,  and  charges 
bow  down,  though  it 
makes  things  dance 
on  board  !  We  find  if 
our  steamer  is  light 
forward  she  just  glides 
up  on  to  the  bank  and 
sits  down,  and  then 
there  is  trouble  !  Six, 
eight,  ten,  or  even  fif- 
teen hours  on  a  sunken 
bank,  as  we  have  had  '3^-  lokongi,  a  mission  teacher  at  eolobo 
at  times,  with  every- 
body pushing  or  pulling  or  laying  out  anchors — this  is  no  joke,  especially 
with  a  tropical  liver  and  lots  of  bile  accumulating  !  .  .  . 

"  30th  of  March  1898.  .  .  .  We  set  to  work  at  once  to  take  off  the 
starboard  propeller,  the  shake  having  become  too  bad  to  allow  of  our 
passing  the  remainder  of  our  journey  without  attending  to  it.  The 
keyway  is  tight  in  the  shaft,  but  it  is  too  small  for  the  propeller.  We 
hammered  it  out  to  the  necessary  amount,  though  as  it  is  of  tool  steel 
it  is  slow  and  tedious  work.  To  allow  of  the  propeller  going  further  up 
the  cone  of  the  tail  shaft  we  have  to  cut  the  after  end  of  the  wing  of 


264  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


this  key.  We  have  had  to  take  out  a  watertight  gland  in  one  of  the 
bulkheads  to  remove  the  intermediate  shaft,  and  to  allow  of  the  tail 
shaft  being  withdrawn  from  the  stern  tube,  for  we  find  it  needful  to 
work  on  the  shaft  as  well  as  the  propeller.  .  .  .  31st  of  March.  .  .  .  We 
finished  by  6  p.m.,  but  only  just  managed  to  get  through.  The  pro- 
peller doors  (we  have  doors  through  the  bottom  hole  for  working  at  the 
propeller)  had  to  be  repacked. 

"  2lst  of  April  1898.  This  evening  one  of  our  stupid  boys  (one  of 
the  stupidest  of  them)  went  to  take  the  cap  off  the  water  inlet  for  fill- 
ing the  boiler  before  the  steam  was  quite  finished  after  blowing  down. 
As  a  consequence,  he  was  half  scared  out  of  his  wits  at  the  rush  of 
steam,  and  what  was  worse,  the  cap  went  overboard  in  eighteen  feet 
of  water,  with  a  strong  current  running.  Some  of  the  boys  managed 
to  touch  the  bottom  in  their  efforts  to  find  the  cap,  but  it  was  useless 
to  try  and  pick  up  so  small  an  article.  Unfortunately,  we  have  nothing 
larger  than  one-inch  pipe  thread  screwing  gear  on  board,  so  we  have 
to  extemporize  clips  and  cover-plate  and  bolt  them  together  with  the 
connecting  bolts  of  the  spare  eccentric  gear.  Poor  Bungudi  is  sweating 
away  as  I  write  this  to  fix  up  the  apparatus." 


CHAPTER  XIII 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 

BETWEEN  1890  and  1900  Grenfell  had,  when  oppor- 
tunity offered,  contuiued  his  explorations  of  the  main 
Cono;o,  besides  makino-  occasional  visits  to  Lake 
Ntomba,  the  lower  Sanga,  the  Lulongo,  Rubi,  Aruwimi, 
Lomami,  Lindi,  and  Chopo  rivers.    This  period  of  ten  years 


133.  GRIiXKELL,  LAW^ijX  lolllLl'l  I,  MR.  AND  MRS.  I.EW'Is  Xl'  S.\X  S.\       \1  n.i  R,  I  893 


was,  however,  mainly  devoted  to  the  Emperor  river  of  this 
mighty  confederation,  in  which  the  Mubangi,  Kasai,  Lomami, 
Ruki,  Sanga,  and  Aruwimi  are  vassal  Kings,  and  the  remain- 
ing streams  Grand  Dukes,  Princes,  Margraves,  and  Serene 
Highnesses. 

When  Grenfell  paid  his  last  visit  to  England  in  1900-1  he 
prepared  for  publication  by  the  Royal  Geographical  Society 

265 


266   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


his  magnificent  map  of  the  Congo  in  ten  sections,  from  Stanley 
Pool  to  Stanley  Falls. 

Between  1878  and  1892  he  had  studied  the  aspects  of  the 
Lower  Congo  from  Banana  Point  on  the  Atlantic  coast  to  the 

Kintambu  or  Ntamo  Rapids,  at 
the  western  exit  from  Stanley 
Pool  ;  and  in  1903  —  possibly 
again  in  1905 — he  had  visited 
the  Lualaba-Conoro  above  Stan- 
ley  Falls  to  as  far  south  as  the 
Hinde  Rapids  and  the  Bambare 
Mountains.  His  notes,  there- 
fore (together  with  those  of  his 
colleaQues  and  of  other  travel- 
lers),  on  the  leading  character- 
istics of  the  main  Congo  may  be 
conveniently  summarized  here  in 
the  last  chapter  but  one  dealing 
with  these  missionary  explora- 
tions. 

The  actual  mouth  of  the  Cono-o 
is  seven  miles  wide  between 
Banana  Point  on  the  north-east 
and  the  hook-like  promontory  of 
Sant'  Antonio  (Shark  Point)  on 
the  south-west.  But  the  whole 
estuary  is  from  fifteen  miles  to 
seventeen  miles  at  its  broadest, 
between  Nemlao,  near  Banana, 
and  Kino-  Antonio's  town  on  the 
shores  of  Diego's  Bay. 

The  great  depths  in  the  main 
channel  of  the  estuarine  Congo 
begin  eastwards  off  Mumpanga 
Island  (Mbulambemba)  and 
range  between  seventy-two  and 
nine  hundred  feet.  This  deep 
trough  (increasing  in  depth  to 
four  thousand  feet)  is  carried 
west-north- west,  outside  the  river's  "under-hung"  mouth 
(shaped  like  a  salmon's  jaws),  through  a  shallow  coastal 
sea  for  some  hundred  and  twenty  miles,  till  it  merges  in  the 
ocean  depths  ;  and  all  this  distance  the  current  and  the  fresh 
water  of  the  mighty  river  are  still  discernible. 


Mile  I 


134.  MAP  OF  HANANA  POINT,  ON  THE 
NORTH  SIDE  OF  THE  CONGO 
MOUTH 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


267 


The  innumerable  islands  and  creeks  of  the  Congo  near  the 
mouth  of  its  estuary  are  covered  with  mangrove  woods,  with 
here  and  there  an  occasional  pandanus.  But  at  Kisanga,  a 
Portuguese  trading  station  on  the  south  bank,  the  forest  growth 
becomes  more  varied,  and  especially  beautiful  are  the  eight-feet- 
high  Lissochilus  orchids.  The  strange  scenery  of  Kisanga  is 
well  worth  a  visit,  and  was  described  by  the  present  writer 
many  years  ago  as  a  "  vegetable  Venice."  There  is  behind 
the  vast  lake-like  Congo  a  labyrinthine  maze  of  narrow  tidal 
creeks,  natural  canals  permeating  an  absolutely  flat  mudland 
covered  with  fantastic  forest — mangroves,  pandanus,  wild  date, 
raphia  and  oil  palms,  tall  ferns,  taller  orchids  (with  enormous 


135.  BANANA  POINT,  AT  THE  MOUTH  OF  THE  CONGO 

red-mauve,  gold-centred  flowers),  large-leaved  fig  trees,  and  an 
occasional  slender-stemmed  cocoa-nut.  This  green  and  grey 
vegetation  frinored  with  the  mauve  orchids  is  reflected  with 
mirror-like  fidelity  in  the  still  water.  Its  monotony  of  half-tint 
is  broken  here  and  there  by  black,  gnarled,  rotting  stems  of  dead 
trees  or  by  the  bunches  of  black  ants'  nests  in  the  tree-forks. 
The  Mussmida  shrubs  contribute  their  white-velvet  clusters 
of  sepals,  and  some  of  the  mangroves'  stems  and  roots  are 
glistening  grey-white.  Roosted  on  the  outlying  branches  are 
white  and  black  fishing-vultures. 

Otherwise  the  inhabitants  of  this  Venice  of  winding  creek 
and  fantastic  tree  architecture  are  more  nearly  toned  to  the  sur- 
roundings. Greenish-grey  and  umber-brown  colobus  monkeys 
move  quietly  about  the  leafy  branches,  eating  the  foliage  of  certain 


268   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


trees  ;  fishing-owls  of  red  or  yellowish-brown  perch  unperceived 
on  boles  and  stumps  of  the  same  colour ;  small  greenish-grey 
glossy  herons  lurk  amongst  the  snags  and  roots  that  are  left 
above  the  mud  of  the  retreating  tide  ;  blue  and  grey  kingfishers, 
grey  and  pink  barbets  perch  on  bare  twigs  ;  greenish-grey  mud- 
hopping  fish  {^Periophtlialmus)  flip-flop  through  the  ooze  and  up 
on  to  the  exposed  tree  roots,  pursued  by  large  dark-blue  and 
buff  land-crabs  emerging  from  rat-hole  burrows  in  the  strips 
of  sand.    Out  in  the  open  water  floating  logs  look  like  grey- 


136.  THE  ESIUAKINE  CONGO  NEAR  ITS  MOUTH 


brown  crocodiles,  and  crocodiles,  half  submerged  or  wholly 
exposed  on  banks  of  sand  or  mud,  look  like  grey-brown  rugose 
tree  trunks. 

The  A-solongo  people  who,  as  fishermen,  dwell  in  this  tidal 
swamp  region  of  the  Congo  estuary  (south  bank  chiefly)  are 
still  a  suspicious,  degenerate,  unpromising  race,  a  people  who 
have  been  strangely  neglected  by  all  missionary  societies  since 
the  eighteenth  century,  down  to  the  establishment  among  them 
of  the  American  Baptists  a  few  years  ago  at  Mukimvika  on 
the  Portuguese  bank.  The  natives  of  the  north  bank  of  the 
Congo  estuary  are,  in  the  swamps,  A-solongo,  but  on  the  high 
ground  farther  north  belong  to  the  Kakongo  stock,  a  much 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


269 


mixed  community  of  low,  brutish  slaves  and  intelligent,  better- 
looking  freemen  or  aristocracies.  The  lower  classes  are  called 
Bafiote;  the  higher,  A-ngoyo,  Kabinda,  Bavili,  and  Ba-Kochi. 
A-solongo  and  Kakongo  are  alike  related  closely  in  language  to 
the  Eshi-kono'O  or  BakonQO  of  the  cataract  region. 

Opposite  Ponta  da  Lenha^  the  main  Congo  narrows  sud- 
denly to  a  width  of  under  a  mile,  as  regards  the  clear  channel 
navigable  by  big  steamers  ;  though  the  breadth  taken  across 
water,  islands,  and  sandbanks  at  this  point  is  the  average  seven 
miles  of  the  estuarine  Conoo.  Eastwards  of  Ponta  da  Lenha 
the  Coneo  swells  out  aoain  to  a  breadth  of  some  thirteen 


137.  SKIN  OF  PYTHON,  2$  FT.  LONG,  2  FT.  7  IN.  BROAD  WHKN  DkV, 
KILLED  AT  NGANGILA,  NEAR  MATADI 


miles,  and  has  almost  the  aspect  of  Stanley  Pool  with  the 
channels  north  and  south  of  the  long  central  island  of  Mateba, 
Between  Fetish  Rock  on  the  south  and  the  easternmost 
extremity  of  the  Mateba  archipelago  on  the  north  the  Congo 
again  narrows  as  one  approaches  Boma. 

This  place  has  long  been  of  importance.  The  name  should 
really  be  spelt  Mboma  or  Emboma,  and  is  probably  identical 
with  the  word  for  python.  Not  only  are  (or  were)  enormous 
pythons  -  very  common  in  that  district,  but  they  may  have  been 

^  Which  in  Portuguese  means  the  Wooding  Point. 

^  Some  of  these  are  reported  to  have  measured  thirty  feet  in  length.  Here  is  an 
authentic  account  of  one  killed  by  the  Rev.  M.  Hunter  Reid  some  few  years  ago  at 
Ngangila,  about  thirty  miles  north-east  of  Boma.    The  passage  is  extracted  from  a 


270   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


at  one  time  associated  as  a  totem  with  some  clan  of  people  estab- 
lished at  this  place.  Boma  probably  derived  its  early  importance 
from  being  the  first  approach  from  the  seaward  side  of  the  solid 
mainland  to  the  waters  of  the  Congo,  and  also  as  the  eastern 
limit  of  easy  tidal  navigation  up  the  Congo  estuary. 

About  Boma  the  Congo  diminishes  abruptly  in  breadth, 
and  the  stream  becomes  strong  and  swift.  In  fact,  one  has 
entered  the  Cataract  region,  though  the  river  continues  to  be 


138.  LOOKING  DOWN  THE  CONGO  TOWARDS  BOMA,  FROM  UNDEKHILL 


letter  recently  written  by  Mr.  Hunter  Reid  to  the  Rev.  Lawson  Forfeitt,  whose 
brother,  the  Rev.  William  Forfeitt,  photographed  the  skin  of  the  snake  : — 

"In  answer  to  your  question,  the  snake's  skin  when  dry  was  25  feet  2  inches 
long,  and  2  feet  7  inches  wide.  It  is  now  in  the  New  York  Museum.  The  morning 
I  shot  the  leopard  from  which  Mrs.  Forfeitt  took  some  of  the  claws,  the  natives  ran 
out  a  buffalo  and  some  antelope  at  the  back  of  the  Mission.  I  shot  the  buffalo  and 
two  antelope.  You  had  one  hind-quarter,  if  you  remember.  Just  as  the  natives 
entered  the  woods  or  jungle  to  start  up  more  game  that  huge  snake  knocked  one 
man  to  the  ground,  breaking  one  arm  and  several  ribs.  It  then  threw  itself  about 
him  and  reached  for  another  man,  whom  it  also  got  into  its  embrace  before  I  could 
get  to  the  spot.  When  I  arrived  I  had  to  pick  a  shot  at  its  head  and  not  harm  the 
two  men,  whom  it  held  with  the  grip  of  a  vice.  I  shot  it  but  once.  The  expansive 
ball  used  blew  out  one  half  of  its  brain,  and  its  motions  on  the  ground  were  a  sight 
long  to  be  remembered.  When  the  snake  ceased  to  struggle  I  and  the  natives  could 
walk  along  its  back  as  easily  as  you  could  walk  on  a  great  big  log.  No  doubt  you 
remember  that  the  stomach  of  the  snake  contained  not  less  than  one  peck  of  brass, 
copper,  and  iron  rings,  such  as  the  natives  wear  on  the  arms  and  legs.  The  stomach 
was  taken  by  one  of  King  Nsikachi's  witch-doctors,  and  prized  by  him  as  a  wonderful 
charm.  A  snake  of  that  size  would  swallow  an  antelope  as  large  as  a  cow,  horns 
and  all." 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


271 


navigable  for  powerful  steamers  as  far  eastwards  as  Matadi,  or 
even  the  approach  to  Vivi.  The  depth  of  the  zigzag  channel 
between  Vivi  and  the  vicinity  of  Boma  is  very  great.  The 
river  is  comparatively  narrow,  scarcely  more  than  an  average 
mile  in  width.  But  in  the  central  channel  it  has  a  depth  of 
from  three  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  eighty  feet.  The 
velocity  of  the  current  opposite  Matadi  is  about  seven  miles  an 
hour,  and  there  are  dangerous  whirlpools  and  eddies  for  canoes 
and  small  boats,  caused  by  the  deep,  swift  water  swirling 
round  hidden  rocks. 

Eastwards  of  Boma,  low  hills  begin  to  approach  the  river- 
bank  closely,  and  above  Noki  these  become  relatively 
lofty  and  picturesque,  rising  to  heights  of  eight  hundred  to 
a  thousand  feet  more  or  less  abruptly  from  the  river's  brim. 
"  Hell's  Cauldron"  (Mayumba  Bay),  on  the  north  bank  of  the 
Congo,  opposite  the  old  site  of  the  Baptist  mission  station  of 
Underbill  (Tunduwa),  is  a  grand  cliff  of  purple-red  crowned 
with  light  oreen  grassland.  Here  the  river,  which  has  long 
flowed  over  a  rocky  bed,  is  comparatively  free  of  detritus  in  its 
upper  waters,^  and  is  therefore  of  glassy  clearness.  The  swirl- 
ing of  the  water  prevents  clear  reflections,  but  nevertheless  the 
whole  surface  of  the  contracted  river  is  tinged  with  a  dull  purple 
tone,  caught  from  the  deep  purplish-red  bare  cliff  above  it,  and 
altogether  suggestive  of  some  awful  Styx  faintly  tinged  with 
the  glow  of  hell  fire. 

On  either  side  the  Congo  now — in  the  vicinity  of  Matadi — 
the  hills  rise  as  swelling"  downs  or  abrupt  terraces  to  eventual 
altitudes  of  two  and  three  thousand  feet.  Some  little  distance 
at  the  back  of  Boma  and  Vivi  magnificent  forest  still  lingers — 
generally  known  as  the  Mayombe  Forest — and  this  covers 
much  of  the  country  away  from  the  vicinity  of  the  Congo 
northwards  to  the  Nyari-Kwilu  River.  In  this  district  at  the 
back  of  Boma  and  Isangila  there  is  still  much  game — red 
buffalo,  cobus  antelopes,  reed-buck,  bush-buck,  and  duykers  ; 
also  many  leopards. 

On  the  southern  side  of  the  Congo,  in  Portuguese  territory, 
both  behind  the  mangrove  and  pandanus  marshlands  already 
described,  and  beyond  the  grassy,  stony  hills  that  succeed  them, 

'  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  there  are,  as  it  were,  two  sections  of  water  in  the 
Lower  Congo.  The  under  stratum  from  Vivi  to  the  sea  is  salt  or  brackish  and 
charged  with  silt.  This,  the  greater  mass  of  the  Lower  Congo  water,  is  only  slightly 
affected  by  tide  and  flood,  and  is  relatively  immobile.  The  upper  current  is  fresh 
and  flows  swiftly,  counteracting  the  ebb  tide  very  considerably.  This  upper  current 
may  vary  twenty  feet  in  height  in  the  gorge  between  Matadi  and  Prince's  Island, 
near  Boma,  according  to  flood  time  or  dry  season. 


272   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


the  country  becomes  parklike,  but  exhibits  nowhere  any  vast 
stretch  of  primeval  forest.  It  has  evidently  been  much  more 
subdued  by  the  hand  of  man  than  the  regions  north  of  the 
Lower  Congo. 

At  Matadi,  now  the  principal  port  of  the  Lower  Congo, 
whither  ocean-going  steamers  can  proceed  to  discharge  their 
cargo,  the  Railway^  commences,  and  proceeds  in  a  fairly  straight 
direction  to  Stanley  Pool,  taking,  however,  a  wide  divergence 


139.  OLD  UNDERBILL  (TUNDUWA)  STATION  AND  HELL'S  CAULDRON 


from  the  course  of  the  cataract  Congo  ;  for  if  an  attempt  is 
made  to  follow  the  river  upstream  from  Matadi  the  path  along 

^  The  Congo  Railway  from  Matadi  to  Stanley  Pool  was  opened  for  public  use  on 
July  4th  1898.  It  had  taken  eight  and  a  half  years  to  construct,  and  of  course  during 
the  process  of  its  construction  it  was  assailed  by  every  form  of  invective,  ridicule,  dis- 
paragement, etc.  etc.,  as  is  the  fate  of  all  pioneering  African  railways,  those  of  Sierra 
Leone,  the  Gold  Coast,  Lagos,  Uganda,  and  the  Sudan  not  excepted.  The  in- 
auguration of  the  complete  line  was  attended  by  some  degree  of  ceremony,  and  the 
Baptist  Mission,  grateful  for  its  facilities,  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  festivities. 
They  received  a  visit,  amongst  other  guests  of  the  State,  from  M.  de  Kologrivoff",  the 
official  delegated  by  the  Tsar  of  Russia  to  be  present  at  the  opening  of  the  railway 
and  to  report  in  general  on  the  affairs  of  the  Congo  Free  State.  The  missionaries  of 
this  society,  and  of  all  others  that  I  have  interrogated,  speak  in  the  highest  terms  of 
the  railway  management  by  Colonel  Thys  and  of  his  action  generally  in  Congo  ques- 
tions. The  railway  has  undoubtedly  been  one  of  the  most  successful  manifestations 
of  Belgian  enterprise  and  good  administration.  An  excellent  description  of  the  line 
was  published  in  1907  by  M.  Louis  Coffin  (Brussels,  Weissenbruch). 


I. — T 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


275 


its  banks  would  proceed  at  first  almost  due  north  to  Isangila, 
and  then  north-eastwards. 

Above  Vivi  the  traveller  coming  from  the  west  encounters 
the  270  miles'  series  of  cataracts  which  Stanley  named  the 
Livingstone  Falls.  Between  Vivi-Matadi  and  Isangila  the 
Congo  is  perfectly  unnavigable,  from  its  swiftness.  The  first 
impassable  rapids  to  be  met  with  in  ascending  the  river  from 
the  sea  are  at  Nzeke,  seven  miles  east  of  Vivi.  Above  that 
come  the  falls  of  Yalala.  These  are  described  by  Stanley  as 
a  series  of  vehement,  rushing,  tumultuous,  and  vexed  waters 


141.    A  STEAMER  ASCENDING  THE  LOWER  CONGO  HEADING  FOR  THE 
PORT  OF  MATADI 


precipitated  with  remarkable  force  and  energy  down  an  incline 
which  drops  some  forty-five  feet  in  a  course  of  five  or  six  miles. 
Their  noise  can  be  heard  nine  miles  away.  The  width  of  the 
Congo  at  this  place  is  less  than  five  hundred  yards,  s"^^  b!^^ 

Above  the  falls  of  Yalala,  the  narrowing  Congo  is  strewn 
with  several  islands  and  islets,  one  especially  remarkable — at 
any  rate,  some  years  ago — ^for  being  a  mass  of  velvet  woods, 
contrasting  strongly  with  the  harsh,  bare  rocks  and  innumerable 
boulders  of  the  surrounding  landscapes.  Another  islet  was  white 
with  guano  and  numbers  of  pelicans  squatting  and  standing  on 
its  summit.  This,  when  the  present  writer  saw  it  in  1883,  was  a 
favourite  breeding-place  for  these  birds,  being  inaccessible  to  man. 

Before  the  first  fall  takes  place,  the  river,  glides  on  smoothly 


276   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


with  a  clear  surface,  "  as  if  never  suspecting  the  terrible  conflict 
before  it."  The  narrowing"  channel  is  then  split  in  two  by 
a  long,  low,  narrow,  rocky  island.  In  the  passages  on  either 
side  of  this  the  river  lashes  itself  into  fury,  coming  down  (as 
Bentley  says)  "with  a  series  of  ten-foot  leaps,  plunging  into 
wild  waves  at  a  high  velocity,  wave  dashing  upon  wave,  and 
throwing  the  spray  far  into  the  air."  According  to  Bentley,  the 
r  ver  channel  is  not  excessively  deep  at  Yalala  ;  yet  the  gorge 
is  narrow.  "It  is  a  struggle  of  water  not  to  be  surpassed  on 
the  face  of  the  earth." 

According  to  the  present  writer's  notes,  made  twenty-four 


142.    THE  RIVER  Ci).\i.(i  Ai;ii\'l-.  VIVl,  UELuW   llIE  NZEKl,  RAilJi>, 
THE  LAST  OF  THE  LIVINGSTONE  FALLS 


years  ago,  the  Congo  does  not  descend  at  each  of  the  three 
or  four  cataracts  of  Yalala  more  than  about  twelve  feet  at  a 
time.  The  air  in  this  gorge  (from  which  the  hills  rise  steeply 
to  heights  of  fifteen  hundred  feet)  is  full  of  comminuted  spray, 
maintaining  a  special  vegetation.  The  rocks  near  the  water's 
edo^e  are  covered  with  a  Ions:  filamental  water-weed  of  intense 
emeralcl-oreen  which  looks  like  tresses  of  lonor  areen  hair.  A 
Plumbago  creeper  festoons  the  brows  of  the  caverns  which  the 
water  at  some  time  or  other  has  hollowed  in  the  walls  of  stone, 
caverns  which  are  now  above  the  level  of  the  flood.  This 
creeper  puts  forth  many  tufts  of  bluish-white  flowers.  On  the 
grey  rocks  large  blue  and  red  lizards  chase  flies  that  are  basking 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


277 


in  the  sunlight,  both  Hzards  and  flies  being  attracted  by  the 
operations  of  the  native  fishermen,  who  place  wickerwork 
baskets  and  traps  along  the  edges  of  the  torrent  to  catch  the 
fish  that  are  swirled  down  the  falls  of  Yalala. 

A  good  many  years  ago  the  gorge  of  the  Congo  between 
Yalala  and  Isangila  was  much  frequented  by  the  red  buffaloes 
of  West  Africa.  So  abundant  were  they  on  many  a  grassy  flat 
at  the  mouth  of  some  small  tributary  of  the  Congo  as  to  give 
these  natural  meadows  quite  a  farmyard  smell.  But  no  doubt 
the  presence  of  Europeans  and  the  abundance  of  guns  in  the 


143.   GENERAL  VIEW  OF  THE  YALALA  FALLS 


possession  of  the  natives  have  long  since  driven  away  or 
destroyed  the  buffaloes  of  Isangila. 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  beautiful  scenery — high  cliff,  forest- 
filled  gorges,  white  weirs  of  broken  water — between  Vivi  and 
Isangila,  but  this  region  still  remains,  for  no  reason  as  yet  dis- 
covered, a  very  unhealthy  part  of  the  Congo.  It  is  infested  by 
the  small,  black  biting  flies  {Simulium). 

According  to  Bentley,  the  narrowest  part  of  the  whole 
Congo  channel  is  not  at  Yalala,  but  between  Ngoma  Mountain 
and  Isangila,  to  the  south  of  that  place.  Here  the  Congo 
must  be  of  enormous  depth,  as  its  tremendous  volume  of  water 
flows  in  the  main  through  one  passage  scarcely  more  than  one 


278   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


hundred  and  thirty  yards  wide,  and  another  not  more  than 
thirty  yards  in  width  on  the  other  side  of  the  island.  Yet 
there  is  no  swirHng,  and  not  only  small  steamers  but  rowing- 
boats  can  ascend  against  the  stream. 

Another  very  narrow  part  of  the  river  is  opposite  the  mouth 
of  the  Kwilu,  between  Isangila  and  Manyanga. 

From  Isangila  to  Manyanga  there  are  several  rapids/  but 
none  that  are  impassable  by  a  steamer  or  even  a  boat.  Over 
this  stretch  of  some  seventy  miles  a  good  deal  of  navigation 
was  carried  on  in  the  early  days  of  the  Congo  Free  State  and 


144.    FALLS  OF  CONGO  AT  ISANGILA;   SKETCH  KV  THE  AUTHOR 


of  the  Baptist  Mission.  The  river  remains  narrow,  and  com- 
passed by  lofty  downs,  variegated  here  and  there  by  strange, 
craggy,  castellated  rocks,  in  which  there  are  remarkable  out- 
crops of  limestone.  To  the  south  of  Manyanga  there  are 
peaks  on  the  plateau  which  rise  to  between  three  and  four 
thousand  feet,  such  as  Mount  Wia.  In  the  bed  of  the  river, 
between  Isangila  and  Itunzima  Rapids,  there  are  curious  reefs 
of  slate-like  rocks  running  parallel  with  the  river's  course  and 
at  its  average  height  just  a  few  feet  above  the  foaming  water. 
They  look  in  their  regular  though  tilted  stratification  like  rows 
of  slates  in  a  builder's  yard.  The  shore-line  of  the  Congo  and 
of  its  larofer  islands  is  of  dazzling^  white  sand.    These  sandbanks 


^  Notably,  in  this  order  as  one  ascends,  the  Nzambi,  Itunzima,  and  Ndunga. 


THE  RIVER  CONGO  279 

are  often  pitted  with  black  holes,  seemingly  the  burrows  in  which 
the  pratincoles  {GalactocJuysea)  nest.  The  banks,  at  any  rate, 
are  haunted  by  numbers  of  these  small,  red-beaked,  swallow-like 
plovers. 

In  portions  of  the  Isangila-Manyanga  stretch  the  Congo 
widens  to  a  mile  in  breadth,  but  it  may  also  narrow  to  a  little 
over  three  hundred  yards.  Above  the  Ndunga  Rapids  the  river 
is  pent  up  in  a  gusty,  windy  trough,  between  steep,  sterile 
slopes.  Here,  as  Stanley  remarks,  Nature  has  begrudged  life — 
animal  as  well  as  veoetable — and  he  comments  on  the  extreme 


145.   A  CONGO  CATARACT  :   SKETCH  bY  THE  AUTHOR 


unhealthiness  of  this  region,  subject  as  it  is  to  constant  chilly 
winds.  Though  big  game  is  seemingly  absent,  however,  from 
this  unattractive  region,  the  river- banks  and  cliffs  are  alive  with 
fishing-vultures  and  kites,  and  the  rocks  with  cormorants  and 
darters.  The  somewhat  sterile  down-country  away  from  the 
river-banks  abounds  with  snakes  to  a  degree  unusual  in 
Congoland — chiefly  spitting  cobras  {Naja)  and  deadly  tree- 
cobras  [Dendraspis),  Causus  vipers,  and  puff-adders. 

From  Manyanga  to  Stanley  Pool  there  is  a  stretch  of  troubled 
Congo  about  a  hundred  miles  in  length.  Eastwards  of  Man- 
yanga the  gorge  of  the  Congo  is  more  picturesque,  especially 
along  the  Zinga  Rapids.  There  is  the  magnificent  cascade  of 
the  Edvv'in  Arnold  or  Luvubi  stream,  nearly  opposite  the  native 
settlement  of  Lutete.    The  waters  of  the  Edwin  Arnold  River 


28o   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


look  in  the  distance  like  a  white  cloth  laid  at  intervals  over  the 
purple  wooded  hills  as  they  come  leaping  in  tremendous  cas- 
cades of  two  hundred  feet  at  a  time  into  the  foaming  Conoro, 
for  the  big  river  is  lashed  into  white  fury  by  a  long  succession 
of  the  Zinga  Falls. 

The  course  of  the  Congo,  from  the  days  when  the  vast 
Congo  sea  ceased  overflowing  towards  Lake  Chad  across  the 
Mubangi  watershed  and  pressed  with  its  waters  against  the 
western  barrier,  has  simply  deepened  or  been  carved  by  the 


146.  THE  SITE  OF  JIANYANGA,  CENTRAL  CATARACT  REGION 


force  of  water  right  athwart  the  north-w^est  and  the  south-east 
trend  of  the  earth-wrinkles,'  and  the  river  flows  through  a 

^  The  Belgian  geographers  style  the  belt  of  broken  plateau — some  two  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  broad — through  which  the  Congo  has  sawn  its  way,  the  "  Serra  do 
Cristal,"  a  name  applied  to  the  coast  range  by  the  Portuguese  centuries  ago.  They 
maintain  that  in  the  Congo  basin  this  broad,  corrugated  tableland  has  a  relative  depres- 
sion in  the  centre,  about  si.xty  miles  in  width,  corresponding  to  the  navigable  stretch 
of  the  Congo  between  Manyanga  and  Isangila.  The  Belgians  speak  of  the  Manyanga- 
Stanley  Pool  highlands  as  the  "chainon  oriental  des  Monts  du  Cristal,"  and  of  the 
Isangila-Boma  hills  as  the  "chainon  occidental."  M.  A.  J.  Wauters  in  his  Lc  relief 
du  Bassin  du  Congo  has  shown  how  there  was  once  a  small  coastal  river — the 
"Banana"  river — which  rose  in  the  3,000-feet-high  mountains  of  Zinga,  beyond  Man- 
yanga. This  stream  was  joined  near  its  source  by  the  Inkisi,  then  by  the  Kwilu, 
and  lastly  near  Matadi  by  an  affluent  of  almost  equal  length,  the  Mpozo,  coming 
from  the  Zombo  plateau.  These  all  united  to  form  a  river  which  entered  the  sea 
between  Banana  and  Sharkpoint.  Then  the  Congo  Lake  overflowed  the  first 
rampart  of  the  Bateke  hills,  filled  to  the  brim  the  depression  of  Stanley  Pool,  and 
beat  against  the  Zinga  mountains  till  it  had  breached  their  walls  ;  after  which  it 
rushed  down  the  narrow  gorge  of  the  "Banana  river,"  and  so  carried  its  pent-up 
waters  to  the  Atlantic. 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


281 


crooked  zigzag  gorge  nearly  a  thousand  feet  deep  in  places  and 
very  narrow.  To  traverse  this  country  by  land  is  like  going  up 
and  down  a  series  of  switchback  railways — up  two  thousand 
feet,  down  fifteen  hundred  feet,  up  again  another  thousand,  then 
a  drop  of  five  hundred,  then  some  gigantic  climb  to  three 
thousand,  and  down  again  another  five  hundred.  The  tribu- 
taries of  the  Congo  in  this  reg^ion  flow  almost  at  ricrht  angles  to 
the  great  river  they  are  going  to  join,  along  deep  valleys, 
equally  at  right  angles  to  the  trough  of  the  Congo.  Many 


147.   SCENERY  IN  THE  CATARACT  REGION  OF  THE  CONGO  (SOUTH  OF  THE  RIVER) 


of  these  valleys  are  filled  with  magnificent  forest,  which  becomes 
more  and  more  of  a  luxuriant  equatorial  character  as  one 
approaches  Stanley  Pool. 

As  regards  this  section  of  the  river  (Bentley  remarks)  the 
water  of  the  Congo  is  rich  in  iron.  As  it  splashes  up  on  the 
rocks  in  the  hot  sun,  the  water  evaporates  and  leaves  a  small 
russet  deposit,  which  gets  burnt  on  to  the  stone.  Another 
splash,  and  a  little  more  is  left,  and  so  on  till  a  chocolate  lacquer 
is  formed  over  the  rocks,  smooth  and  hard,  often  only  one  thirty- 
second  of  an  inch  in  thickness.  The  deposit  so  thoroughly 
hides  the  character  of  the  rocks  that  Stanley  at  one  time 
believed  the  hard  quartzite-sandstone  formation  of  the  Kalulu 
Falls  west  of  Stanley  Pool  to  be  lava.    The  same  remark  has 


282   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


been  made  bv  other  travellers  regrardinCT  the  rock  formations 
croppmg  out  here  and  there  in  the  cataract  region  of  the  Congo. 
They  are  referred  to  as  "igneous,"  whereas  they  are  merely 
sandstone  or  other  formations  coated  with  an  iron  deposit. 
There  are  said  to  be  genuine  evidences  of  igneous  rock  near 
Isangila — alluded  to  by  Bentley,  Stanley,  and  one  or  two 
Belgians — but  there  is  so  little  other  evidence  of  volcanic  activity 
in  this  part  of  West  Africa  that  these  too  are  probably  only 
stones  coated  with  iron  deposit. 


148.  NZEKE  RAPIDS,  THE  LAST  OF  THE  LIVINGSTONE  FALLS,  NEAR  VIVI 


Here  is  a  description  by  Bentley  of  scenery  in  the  Congo 
Gorge  near  the  Kalulu  Falls  : — 

"The  view  at  the  junction  of  the  Congo  with  the  Nkalama  (Luila) 
stream  was  very  beautiful,  for  a  good  stretch  of  river  lay  open  ;  the 
wooded  hills,  rich  in  palm  trees,  the  lighter  tinted  strips  of  jungle,  the 
gleaming  white  sandbanks,  the  black  rocks,  the  swirling,  raging,  seething 
water  make  a  picture  which  arrests  every  traveller  as  it  breaks  into 
view.  .  .  .  Just  below  this  point  are  the  Lady  Alice  Rapids.  On  either 
side  stretches  a  broad  waste  of  huge  boulders.  The  pebbles  on  the 
beach  are  often  twenty  inches  in  diameter ;  they  lie  strewn  on  a  rocky 
shore,  but  are  covered  at  high  flood.  Between  these  two  beaches  of 
giant  pebbles  is  a  narrow  rift  a  mile  long,  through  which  the  river 
struggles  with  great  velocity.  .  .  .  Here  the  Congo  cannot  be  more  than 
two  hundred  yards  wide." 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


283 


North-east  of  Manyanga  there  is  a  considerable  cataract 
known  as  Kimbala,  Then,  farther  upstream,  a  long  tumultuous 
stretch  of  broken  water,  the  Zinga  and  Muhona  Falls.  Above 
these  are  the  Lady  Alice  Rapids,  and,  finally,  near  Stanley 
Pool,  the  series  of  Kalulu  Falls.  In  all  there  are  thirty-two 
distinct  cataracts  in  the  Livingstone  Falls  of  the  Congo,  ranging 
from  eight  to  thirty  feet  in  abrupt  descent,  between  the  Ntamo 
Falls,  near  Leopoldville  (five  miles  west  of  Stanley  Pool),  and 
the  Nzeke  Rapids,  near  the  confluence  of  the  Mpozo  River  and 
the  vicinity  of  Vivi — a  distance  of  about  two  hundred  and  sixty 
miles  of  water,  of  which  seventy  are  navigable. 

The  altitude  of  the  Conoco  above  sea-level  at  its  breaking 
away  from  Stanley  Pool  (Ntamo)  is  about  915  feet ;  ^  at  the 
shor^  of  Manyanga  it  is  about  470  feet ;  at  Isangila,  400  feet  ; 
and  on  the  beach  at  Matadi,  an  average  45  feet  (ranging  from 
36  feet  to  54  feet). 

The  Lower  Congo  from  Stanley  Pool  to  the  sea  is  called 
Njali  by  the  Bateke  ;  Nzadi  and  Kwangu  by  the  Bakongo  ; 
also,  Mwanza  in  its  estuary.  Nowhere  is  it  called  "  Congo."  As 
explained  elsewhere,  the  word  "  Kongo  "  means  "hunter,"  and 
was  the  original  name  applied  to  a  tribe  on  the  plateau  south  of 
the  cataract  region  of  the  Lower  Congo.  When  in  1877  the  chief 
of  Rubunga,  600  miles  east  of  Stanley  Pool,  uttered  the  magic 
word  "  Kongo,"  he  merely  meant  that  the  great  river,  followed 
westward,  would  lead  to  the  native  kingdom  of  that  name. 

The  end  of  November  or  beoinning-  of  December  witnesses 
the  highest  water  in  the  Lower  Congo  from  Stanley  Pool  to 
Matadi.  The  fall  in  the  cataract  reoion  beg-ins  in  December 
and  the  lowest  levels  are  attained  in  July.  Usually  there  is  a  rise 
and  fall  of  about  nine  feet  in  March-April,  before  extreme  low 
water  is  reached  in  July.  The  rise  which  with  autumn  fluctua- 
tions is  to  culminate  in  early  December  begins  usually  in  July. 
Much  the  same  seasons  (with  slight  local  variations)  prevail  over 
the  whole  of  the  main  Congo  between  Stanley  Falls  and  Matadi. 
At  Matadi  the  extreme  rise  seems  to  be  nineteen  to  twenty  feet 
over  lowest  level,  and  at  Noki,  nearer  the  sea,  sixteen  feet  three 
inches. 

The  rainfall  at  the  mouth  of  the  Congo  is  very  variable, 
but  its  maximum  scarcely  exceeds  thirty-eight  inches  per 
annum,  and  is  sometimes  as  low  as  sixteen  ;  in  the  western  part 
of  the  cataract  region,  forty-two  inches ;  at  Manyanga,  fifty 
inches ;  and  on  Stanley  Pool,  fifty-five   inches  seem  to  be 

'  Grenfell  invariably  made  it  800  feet,  and  French  estimates  agree  with  him, 
but  the  Belgian  calculation  of  915  feet  appears  on  most  official  maps. 


284   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


average  statements.  On  the  Zombo  plateau,  south  of  the 
cataract  Congo,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Lewis  has  recorded  a  year's 
rainfall  as  reaching  fifty-three  inches. 

The  people  along  the  banks  of  the  cataract  Congo  belong 
in  the  main  to  the  Kongo  stock,  in  language  at  any  rate.  On 
the  north  bank  round  Boma  they  are  of  mixed  Kakongo- 
Mayo7nbe  stock.  Then  at  Isangila  succeed  the  Basundi  (who 
apparently  once  came  from  the  lower  Kwango),  and  at  Man- 
yanga  the  Babwendi.  The  Bateke — wholly  dissimilar  in 
language  and  customs  from  the  Kongo  group — reach  the  north 


149.   VIEW  OF  CONGO  IN  THK  CATARACT  REGION  NEAR  STANLEY  POOL 


bank  of  the  river  in  the  cataract  region,  a  little  distance  east 
of  the  Kenka  River.  Here  they  call  themselves  Balali.  The 
Bakongo  proper  inhabit  the  north  bank  of  the  cataract  Congo 
east  of  Manyanga  and  west  of  the  Kenka  river ;  and  they 
occupy  the  whole  south  bank  of  the  river  between  Noki  and 
the  vicinity  of  Stanley  Pool.  They  are  also  of  course  (under 
different  tribal  names)  the  natives  of  the  plateaux  lying  between 
the  cataract  Congo,  the  Kwango  river,  and  the  racial  limits  of 
Angola. 

The  navigable  Upper  Congo  commences  at  Leopoldville, 
situated  above  a  litde  bay  about  two  miles  east  of  the  Ntamo 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


285 


cataracts.  This  is  the  point  where  the  railway  from  Matadi  has 
its  terminus.  From  Leopoldville  to  Stanleyville,  at  the  foot  of 
the  Stanley  Falls,  a  distance  of  nine  hundred  and  eighty  miles, 
navigation  is  uninterrupted  all  the  year  round.  The  govern- 
ment wharf  and  the  railway  terminus  are  within  two  or  three 
hundred  yards  of  the  ledge  of  rocks  over  which  the  river  makes 
the  first  of  a  long  series  of  drops  on  its  way  to  Matadi.^ 

Stanley  Pool  is  an  expanse  of  water  and  islands  and  sand- 
banks some  twenty 
miles  in  length  by 
fourteen  miles  in 
breadth,  but  though 
Kallina  Point  (al- 
ways awkward  be- 
cause of  the  strong 
current)  has  been 
passed  on  entering 
it,  the  difficulties  of 
navigation  are  not 
at  an  end;  the 
south  -  west  corner 
of  the  Pool  bristles 
with  rocks  till  Kin- 
shasa is  well  astern. 
Then,  as  soon  as  the 
rocks  are  passed, 
one  is  in  the  midst 
of  anxieties  caused 
by  the  sandbanks 
deposited  as  the 
river  spreads  itself 
out  and  becomes  too 
sluoro  ish  to  hold  the 
sand  any  longer  in 
suspension.  The  complications  due  to  the  sandbanks  would 
not  be  so  great  if,  like  the  rocks,  they  but  stayed  in  the  places 
where  one  found  them.  The  channel  of  this  season  may  be  dry 
bank  the  next,  and  soon  be  covered  with  grass  and  scrub,  but 
only  perhaps  to  disappear  a  little  later  at  the  rate  of  some 
hundreds  of  cubic  yards  per  minute  as  it  is  undermined  by  the 

^  This  paragraph  and  much  of  what  follows  is  directly  quoted  from  Grenfell.  He 
adds  at  this  point  that  the  total  drop  of  the  Congo  between  Ntamo  and  Matadi  is 
seven  hundred  feet,  but  this  is  on  the  assumption  that  the  south  end  of  Stanley  Pool 
is  only  eight  hundred  feet  above  sea-level.  Belgian  geographers  disagree  with 
Grenfell  and  make  this  descent  eight  hundred  and  fifteen  feet. 


286   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


current,  which  has  once  more  been  deflected  towards  its  previous 
course.  Sometimes  a  disappearing  sandbank,  while  it  goes  to 
build  up  an  obstacle  at  some  other  point,  leaves  a  positive 
danger  in  the  shape  of  a  reef  of  rocks  which  it  had  previously 
very  effectively  masked. 

The  great  island  of  Mbamu  or  Bamu  which  fills  up  all  the 
middle  of  Stanley  Pool  is,  with  its  northern  sandbanks,  merely 
the  remains  of  a  gigantic  landslip  which  was  caused  by  the 
rain  from  above  and  the  river  beneath  undermining  the  sand 
formations  of  the  low  tableland  overlooking  the  northern  side 


151.   DOVER  CLIFFS,  STANLEY  POOL 

of  Stanley  Pool.  A  vestige  of  this  catastrophe  is  the  gleaming 
scaur  of  "  Dover  Cliffs."  Before  this  landslip  took  place  the 
Conoo  flowed  in  a  curved  channel  south  of  Bamu  Island. 

The  large  and  small  islands  of  the  Pool  are  at  present  with- 
out settled  inhabitants,  being  only  visited  by  parties  of  Bateke 
and  Bayanzi  for  the  purpose  of  fish-curing.  But  according  to 
native  tradition  Bamu  was  thickly  inhabited  by  Bateke-like 
people  down  to  some  seventy  years  ago.^    They  were  exter- 

'  These  are  called  by  the  Bayanzi  "  Bambari,  ' which  simply  means  in  Lobobangi 
"  People  of  the  River."  Mhari,  Bali  (/,  r,  and  d  are  interchangeable  in  negro 
Africa)  is  a  widespread  vocable  for  river  over  west-central  Africa  underlying  many 
diverse  forms  of  speech.  Sometimes  it  is  shortened  to  Ba-,  Be-,  or  combined  with 
prefixes  as  Kibali,  Mambare.  A  concurrent  root  word  is  Naadi,  ftyari,  shari,  chadi ; 
ibare,  iberre,  ibele,  are  forms  probably  related  to  the  root  Bari. 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


287 


minated  by  a  determined  attack  on  the  part  of  the  Bayanzi  or 
Babangi,  soon  after  that  race  became  predominant  on  the  Congo 
between  Lulongo  and  Stanley  Pool. 

The  shores  of  Stanley  Pool — with  the  exception  of  a 
few  Bayanzi  colonies  on  the  south-east — are  the  domain  of  the 
"  Bateke "  peoples,  represented  by  the  Balali  (on  the  north), 
Babali  (on  the  south-east),  and  Ba-wumbu  (on  the  south  and 
south-west)/ 

At  the  eastern  end  of  Stanley  Pool,  where  the  river  leaves 
the  narrow  channel  and  begins  to  expand,  the  greatest  depth 
is  close  up  against  the  precipitous  northern  bank  (where  Stanley 
obtained  an  average  sounding  of  a  hundred  feet).  Here  no 
doubt  further  landslips  are  being  prepared  which  may  some 
day  much  affect  the  shape  and  the  navigable  channels  of  the 
Stanley  Pool. 

Ascending  the  Congo  from  Stanley  Pool  eastwards,  the 
course  of  the  river  for  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles  is  con- 
fined between  steep-faced  hills  on  either  side.  Between  left 
and  ricvht  bank  the  distance  ranges  from  one  to  two  miles, 
generally  less  than  one  mile.  The  hills  rise  to  eight  or  nine 
hundred  feet  above  the  river  for  some  distance  from  the  Pool  ; 
but  about  a  hundred  miles  east  of  this  expansion  these  wooded 
cliffs  are  seldom  much  more  than  half  that  height,  are  much  less 
steep,  and  begin  to  recede  from  the  water's  edge. 

At  a  point  eighty-five  miles  east  of  Stanley  Pool  the  Kasai 
joins  the  Congo,  pouring  its  immense  volume  into  it  at  a  right 
angle  through  a  deeply  cut  chasm  in  the  rocky  hills  some  seven 
hundred  yards  in  width.  Through  this  relatively  narrow  gap 
of  very  deep  water  (generally  known  as  the  Kwa)  steamers 
have  access  to  the  series  of  waterways  furnished  by  the  Kasai 
and  its  tributaries,  amounting  to  not  less  than  fifteen  hundred 
miles.  When  the  Kasai  is  in  flood  the  current  in  the  centre 
of  the  Kwa  channel  runs  at  from  five  to  six  miles  an  hour, 
bringing  down  such  an  amount  of  brick-red  water  as  greatly 
to  modify  the  dark,  clear  "  tea "  brown  of  the  great  Congo, 
which  gradually  fuses  with  it  on  the  way  to  Stanley  Pool. 

About  forty  miles  north  of  the  Kwa  mouth  the  "  Chenal,"  as 
the  Belgians  call  this  constricted  Congo,  terminates  ;  the  hills 
recede  and  the  river  spreads  itself  out  to  a  width  of  five  miles. 
The  rocky  ledges  and  reefs,  the  spurs  sent  out  into  the  river  by 
the  hills  on  both  sides,  which  have  been  a  continual  menace 
since  leaving  the  Pool,  now  give  place  (as  one  ascends)  to  sand- 

'  Among  and  to  the  east  of  the  Ba-vvumbu  is  a  helot  tribe  of  uncertain  affinities 
known  as  the  Bamfuninga,  Bamfunu,  Bambundu. 


288   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


banks  ;  and  rocks  are  hardly  seen  again  for  five  hundred  miles. 
This  expansion  continues  northwards  for  thirty  miles  ;  it  is  very 
shallow,  and  its  further  end  is  characterized  by  many  islands. 

On  the  slightly  rising  ground  at  its  northern  extremity  the 
Bolobo  villages  are  found,  and  just  beyond,  after  narrowing  to 
less  than  two  miles,  the  channel  expands  again  to  a  width  of 
five  or  six  miles  — the  width  it  practically  maintains  as  far  as 
Lukolela,  a  distance  of  one  hundred  miles.  Midway  along  this 
reach  the  Alima  pours  its  water  into  the  Congo  from  the  west, 
and  the  delta  it  forms  extends  itself  into  the  main  stream  till  the 
width  becomes  a  little  less  than  four  miles.  It  is  at  this  point 
alone,  throughout  the  length  of  this  reach,  that  both  banks  of 


152.   LAST  RELICS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  CONGO  PLATEAU — HILLS  LINGERING  ON 
THE  WESTERN  BANK  OF  UPPER  CONGO,  NEAR  BOLOBO 

the  river  are  in  sight  of  each  other,  the  long  lines  of  islands 
elsewhere  obscuring  the  view.  On  the  same  side  of  the  river, 
and  some  thirty  miles  beyond  the  Alima,  is  the  Likuala  or  Mai 
Bosaka— a  very  slow-flowing  stream  ;  and  a  few  miles  farther 
on  is  the  principal  mouth  of  the  Sanga,  the  important  tributary 
that  furnishes  an  available  waterway  for  steamers  right  up  to 
the  south-eastern  corner  of  the  German  Cameroons  colony. 
There  is  often  a  strono-  backwater  in  the  main  Conoo  above 

o  o 

the  Sanga  delta  when  that  river  is  coming  down  in  force. 
Near  Bunga  the  Sanga  flows  with  a  velocity  of  one  hundred 
and  seventy  feet  a  minute  ;  but  in  December,  when  the  upper 
Sanoa  is  falling-  fast,  the  full  Cono-o  forces  the  waters  of  the 
lower  Sanga  upstream  in  an  ebb  which  greatly  raises  the  level 
of  the  lower  San^a.  The  Sanga  is  best  suited  for  navigation 
in  the  month  of  April. 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


289 


The  Lukolela  narrows  are  some  five  miles  in  length,  and  are 
formed  by  a  range  of  low  hills  of  ferruginous  conglomerate, 
though  this  ridge  does  not  rise  more  than  thirty  or  forty  feet 
above  the  river.  Beyond  the  Butunu  narrows  the  river  widens 
to  seven  miles,  but  in  less  than  twenty-five  miles  the  con- 
glomerate ridges  upon  which  Liranga  and  Ngombe  are  built 
reduce  the  river  once  more  to  less  than  a  couple  of  miles. 
Liranga  is  at  the 
south  -  western 
limit  of  the  delta 
formed  by  the 
confluence  of  the 
Mubano-i  with 
the  main  stream, 
and  from  this 
point  the  French 
boundary  trends 
northwards,  fol- 
lowing the  "thal- 
weg" of  the  Mu- 
ban^i  instead  of 
that  of  the 
Congo. 

The  water 
rising  in  the 
main  C  o  n  o-  o 
drives  back  the 
flood  of  the  Mu- 
bangi,  and  even 
turns  its  current 
up  this  stream 
for  a  short  dis- 
tance. At  such 
times  (as  in  De- 
cember) the  whole  country  up  to  the  confluence  with  the  Ngiri 
is  under  water,  even  covering  towns  that  are  built  fifteen  feet 
above  ordinary  level.  The  best  month  for  exploring  the 
Ngiri  is  August.    It  is  at  its  lowest  in  May.^ 

Beyond  the  Liranga-Ngombe  narrows  there  are  one  hundred 
and  seventy  miles  of  the  Congo's  course  before,  at  a  point  just 
below  Bangala,  it  is  reduced  to  two  and  a  half  miles  from  bank 
to  bank.  So  persistently  do  the  islands  block  the  view,  that 
throughout  the  whole  length  of  this  long  reach  there  are  very 

'  Grenfell  visited  the  Ngiri  affluent  of  the  Mubangi  in  1904. 
I. — U 


153.  BORASSUS  PALMS  ON  THE  UPPER  CONGO 


290  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


few  places  where  one  bank  is  observable  from  the  other.  The 
Ruki,  the  Ikelemba,  and  the  Lulongo  riv^ers  pour  their  inky 
waters  into  this  reach  within  the  first  forty  miles  north  of  the 
Equator,  and,  after  mingling  with  the  Congo,  very  perceptibly 
darken  its  hue.  These  important  eastern  tributaries  furnish 
more  than  one  thousand  miles  of  navigable  waterway,  but  they 
mostly  traverse  very  low-lying  country. 

Between  the  Bangala  narrows  and  Bopoto,  where  once  more 
the  river  is  perceptibly  reduced  in  width,  there  is  a  distance 
of  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  miles.  Where  this  reach 
includes  the  fifty-mile  island  of  Nsumba  the  river  widens  to 


134.    VIEW  ON  THK  UPPKR  CONGO,  NEAR  liOPOTO,  TO  SHOW  ISLANDS 


nine  miles.  The  only  important  tributary  received  in  this  reach 
is  the  Mongala,  from  the  north-east,  a  river  navioable  for  more 
than  three  hundred  miles,  and  traversing  one  of  the  best  rubber- 
producing  regions  of  the  Congo  State.  Nearly  opposite  the  delta 
of  the  Mongala  River  there  opens  out  on  the  south  bank  the 
remarkable  Bukatulaka  Channel,  a  southern  loop  of  the  Bangala- 
Congo,  enclosing  the  Congo's  largest  island,  about  seventy  miles 
long.^ 

Bopoto  is  situated  almost  at  the  extreme  north  of  the  great 
"Horseshoe  bend"  (in  2°  7'  N.  Lat.),  and  on  the  bank  of  the 
first  semblance  of  a  hill  for  more  than  four  hundred  miles  after 
passing  Lukolela.    After  so  long  a  stretch  of  low,  flat  land,  it 

'  The  exploration  of  the  Bukatulaka  Channel  was  completed  by  Grenfell  in 
March  1906  :  his  last  piece  of  survey  work. 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


291 


is  quite  refreshing  to  see  a  hill,  even  though  it  is  barely  two 
hundred  feet  in  height ;  to  the  natives,  who  have  not  previously 
seen  anything  bigger  than  an  anthill,  such  an  altitude  is  quite 
impressive,  and  to  the  younger  people  even  awe-inspiring. 
Here  one  comes  into  contact  with  the  felspathic  bed-rock  of  the 
central  part  of  the  continent,  and  for  ten  miles  or  so  navigation 
becomes  a  very  serious  matter,  because  of  the  dangers  incident 
upon  the  presence  of  reefs.  It  is  the  same  rock  over  which  the 
Congo  drops  at  Stanley  Falls,  and  over  which  it  drops  again — a 
thousand  miles  away — below  Stanley  Pool. 


155.    \Il!:w  iMiWN  THE  CONGO  AT  BOPOTO  FROM  A  ^^SSION  HOUSE 


The  next  narrows  are  one  hundred  miles  beyond  Bopoto, 
and  about  ten  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Rubi,  Loika,  or 
Itimbiri  River ;  apparently  they  are  caused  by  the  deposits 
brought  down  by  that  river.  The  Rubi  is  navigable  by  steamers 
for  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  as  far  as  the  Rubi  Falls,  and 
is  the  route  by  which  the  Congo  Government  transport  leaves 
the  Congo  for  the  Lado  enclave  on  the  Nile. 

At  a  distance  of  one  hundred  and  five  miles  beyond  the 
Rubi  narrows,  and  just  beyond  the  mouth  of  the  Aruwimi, 
the  Congo  is  reduced  to  a  mile  in  width,  and  beyond  that  point 
largely  loses  its  lacustrine  characteristics.  A  change  announces 
itself  on  the  southern  bank  some  thirty  miles  before  reaching 


292   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Basoko  (the  centre  of  administration  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Aruwimi  River),  by  the  reappearance  of  rocks  and  low  hills. 
Opposite  Basoko  the  hills  have  become  pretty  continuous,  and 
rise  to  nearly  two  hundred  feet  in  height.  On  the  north  bank 
the  high  land  does  not  commence  till  one  is  fifteen  miles  east 
of  the  Aruwimi.  Beyond  that  point  it  is  nearly  continuous  up 
to  Stanley  Falls.  On  the  southern  bank,  however,  the  hills 
soon  give  place  to  a  narrow  ridge  of  clay  and  gravel  bank 
slightly  above  flood-level,  and  with  a  wide  extent  of  swampy 
land  in  the  interior. 

The  distance  between  Basoko  and  Stanley  Falls  is  one 


156.    ON  THE  BANKS  OF  THE  CONGO  NEAR  BWEMBA 


hundred  and  thirty  miles,  but  at  a  point  a  little  less  than 
half-way,  the  Lomami,  coming  from  the  south,  empties  into  the 
Conoo  the  waters  it  has  grathered  alonor  a  course  of  more  than 
seven  hundred  miles  [it  is  navigable  for  more  than  two  hundred 
miles].  If  the  Congo  is  markedly  less  in  size  above  the 
Aruwimi,  it  is  even  more  markedly  reduced  beyond  the  point 
where  it  receives  the  Lomami,  and  the  islands  become  very 
few.  At  twenty  miles  beyond  the  Lomami  the  channel  is  once 
more  bounded  by  steep  and  often  rocky  banks  about  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile  apart.  During  the  low-water  season  the 
navigation  of  the  last  twenty  miles  below  Stanleyville  becomes 
somewhat  dangerous,  because  of  the  reefs  of  rocks  that  at  that 
time  lie  so  close  to  the  surface.  Boats  drawing  more  than  three 
feet  of  water  find  this  part  of  the  river  impracticable  during  the 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


293 


dead-low  water  that  sometimes  obtains  at  the  autumnal  equinox, 
but  happily  this  only  lasts  for  a  week  or  two,  and  at  all  other 
times  boats  drawing  from  four  to  four  and  a  half  feet  can,  with 
caution,  navigate  the  whole  of  the  nine  hundred  and  eighty 
miles  from  the  Pool  to  the  Stanley  Falls. 

Upon  regarding  a  map  of  the  Congo  between  the  fifteenth 
and  twenty-fifth  meridians,  one  remarks  that  the  river  follows  a 
course  indicated  by  wide  curves  and  comparatively  straight 
lines  that  contrast  very  markedly  with  the  serpentine  courses  of 
so  many  rivers.  However,  if  the  banks  of  the  river  are  not 
traced  with  the  characteristic  sharp  curves  of  inland  waters,  the 


157.    THE  BANKS  OF  THE  CONGO  AT  YALEMBA,  EAST  OF  THE 
ARUWIMI  CONFLUENCE 

main  volume  of  the  river  and  the  strong  currents  undoubtedly 
follow  very  sinuous  lines.  Where  the  river-banks  are  compara- 
tively close,  say  from  three-quarters  of  a  mile  to  one  and  a  half 
mile  apart,  the  water  setting  over  from  one  side  to  the  other 
creates  below  the  point  of  deflection  a  counter-current,  where 
banks  of  sand  and  mud  are  deposited,  and,  upon  impinging 
upon  the  other  side,  the  water  is  again  deflected  and  another 
counter-current  set  up,  to  be  followed  by  the  formation  of  other 
banks.  Thus  the  course  of  the  main  volume  of  water  is  very 
tortuous,  though,  except  at  very  low  water,  when  the  banks 
show  above  the  surface,  the  fact  is  apparent  only  to  those  who 
are  personally  interested  in  navigating  its  course. 

Where  the  river  widens  out,  as  it  does  in  many  places,  to 
more  than  five  miles,  and  even  to  six,  seven,  or  ten,  and  where 


294   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


it  meanders  among  borassus-covered  islands  and  sandbanks,  the 
waters,  instead  of  maintaining  themselves  at  a  depth  of  several 
fathoms,  are  reduced  to  as  many  feet,  or  even  less.  Spread 
over  so  wide  an  area  they  become  sluggish,  and  much  of  the 
sand  with  which  they  have  been  charged,  picked  up  in  the 

higher  regions  by 
the  swifter  stream, 
is  deposited  in  the 
shape  of  a  long 
series  of  fantail 
banks,  over  the 
extended  edges  of 
which  the  water 
glides  with  its  very 
characteristic  rip- 
ple into  the  sud- 
denly deepened 
channel  on  the 
downstream  side  ; 
this,  in  many  cases, 
without  affordino-  a 
passage  for  even  a 
shallow-  drausfht 
steamer. 

It  such  a  bank  is 
to  be  passed  at  all, 
it  is  at  the  ex- 
tremity, on  the 
opposite  side  from 
which  its  formation 
commenced,  but 
\'ery  often  the 
deeper  water,  to  be 
looked  for  between 
the  point  of  the 
sandbank  and  the 
shore,  is  so  narrow,  or  is  so  overhung  by  trees,  as  to  be  im- 
practicable, and  then  another  channel  has  to  be  sought  among 
the  islands.  As  there  are  nearly  eighty  islands  between  five 
and  ten  miles  in  length,  and  fifty  more  than  ten  miles  (one  is 
over  seventy,  another  is  fifty, ^  and  two  are  more  than  thirty 
miles  long),  getting  out  of  one  channel  to  another  is  sometimes 
a  serious  contingency,  involving  a  long  detour. 

'  Bukatulaka  or  Bokiimbi,  and  Nsumba. 


158.    BORASSUS  PALMS  ON  AN  ISLAND  OF  THE 
UPPER  CONGO 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


295 


Reviewing  the  dangers  of  Congo  navigation  between  Stanley 
Falls  and  Stanley  Pool,  Grenfell  writes  thus  (in  1901)  : — 

"  Long  reefs  of  rocks  jutting  out  into  the  stream,  and  sometimes 
occurring  as  isolated  patches  in  the  middle  of  the  river,  render  the  first 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  or  so  of  the  Upper  Congo  beyond  Leopoldville 
particularly  dangerous.  They  have  so  far,  however,  caused  but  two 
total  losses,  though  they  involved  very  heavy  expenditure  for  repairs  to 
many  boats.  Reefs  projecting  from  the  bank  are  generally  indicated  by 
their  shoreward  ends  presenting  themselves  to  view,  and  by  the  ripple 
they  cause  upon  the  surface  of  the  water  ;  but  isolated  reefs  and  rocks 
are  sometimes  found  in  the  quiet  places  below  prominent  points,  where 
there  is  no  current  at  all,  or  perhaps  a  slight  counter-current ;  and  these  are 


159.    THE  SNAGS  THAT  WRECK  THE  STEAMERS 

the  most  dangerous  of  all  the  obstacles  to  Congo  navigation.  A  forty-ton 
steamer  was  wrecked  on  one  of  these  projecting  reefs,  but  her  cargo  and 
much  of  her  machinery  was  saved  ;  and  the  Courbet,  sister  craft  of  the 
Faidhcrbe  that  was  carried  across  the  watershed  dividing  the  Congo 
from  the  Nile  to  figure  in  the  '  Fashoda  affair,'  was  lost  by  striking  one 
of  these  isolated  masses  of  rock  in  comparatively  still  water.  She 
struck  it  with  sufficient  force  to  tear  open  several  plates  and  to  pass  over 
into  deep  water  beyond,  where,  some  four  or  five  minutes  later,  she 
sank,  as  H.M.S.  Victoria  sank,  bow  first,  and  her  propeller  still  revolving 
in  the  air  as  her  stern  disappeared  from  view. 

"  Next  to  the  rocks  in  importance  amongst  the  dangers  of  Congo 
navigation  one  must  rank  the  '  snags.'  They  cause  as  many  accidents 
as  rocks,  but  happily  not  such  serious  ones.  As  the  Congo  and  its 
affluents  with  their  more  than  four  thousand  islands  furnish  at  least 
twenty  thousand  miles  of  overhanging  wooded  banks,  the  number 


296   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


of  trees  which  fall  annually  into  the  water  is  very  considerable.  Many 
of  these  are  of  greater  specific  gravity  than  water,  and  just  lie  where 
they  fall ;  the  lighter  ones  float  for  a  while,  but  becoming  waterlogged 
they  sink  to  the  bottom.  Those  that  sink  in  deep  water  are  of  no 
menace  ;  but  those  that  lie  in  such  a  position  that  when  the  river 
falls  they  will  come  within  a  few  feet  of  the  surface  are  a  constant 
source  of  danger. 

"  Steamers  drawing  more  than  three  feet  of  water  incur  greatly 
increased  risks,  because  snags  and  rocks  below  that  depth  give  little  or 
no  evidence  on  the  surface  of  their  existence  below.  During  the  low- 
water  season,  steamers  drawing  more  than  four  feet  of  water  are 
navigated  with  considerable  difficulty,  by  reason  of  the  innumerable 
sandbanks  which  encumber  the  channels.  This  is  especially  the  case  on 
downward  journeys,  much  time  being  frequently  lost  in  pushing  or 
in  warping  off.  If  the  steamer  draws  three  feet  or  less  the  crew  can 
generally  solve  the  difficulty  in  a  little  while  by  jumping  into  the  water 
and  pushing  in  the  required  direction,  two  or  three  of  them  being 
occupied  the  meanwhile  in  searching  for  deeper  water.  Having  found 
it,  they  form  into  a  line  of  living  buoys,  indicating  the  best  route  across 
a  shallow  patch.  If  mere  pushing  is  not  enough,  the  anchors  of  shallow 
boats  can  easily  be  carried  out  into  four  or  five  feet  of  water,  and  the 
winch  be  brought  into  requisition  for  the  work  of  warping  off.  But 
when  the  boat  draws  four  feet  or  more,  anchors  have  to  be  carried  out 
by  means  of  boats  or  canoes,  and  warping  off  becomes  a  specially 
wearisome  operation.  Stern-wheelers  can  cope  much  more  speedily 
with  the  difficulties  funished  by  sandbanks  than  is  the  case  with  screw- 
propellers.  If  a  stern-wheeler  sits  down  on  a  sandbank  it  is  mostly 
a  matter  of  keeping  the  engines  going  astern  for  a  time,  and  the 
violent  wash  caused  by  the  paddles  will  excavate  a  channel ;  the  screw- 
propeller,  on  the  other  hand,  simply  digs  a  deep  hole  immediately 
under  the  stern,  while  at  the  same  time  it  drives  a  lot  of  sand  into  the 
stern-tube  '  bushings,'  and  grinds  the  shaft  and  bearers  away  in  a 
fashion  that  is  simply  terrible  from  the  engineer's  point  of  view. 

"  The  reason  why  downstream  journeys  are  more  seriously  delayed 
by  sandbanks  than  those  in  the  opposite  direction  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  banks  gradually  shelve  upwards  till  their  highest  ridges  are  reached 
at  the  downstream  ends ;  and  steamers,  after  being  driven  up  the 
sloping  bank  a  certain  distance  by  virtue  of  their  own  speed,  are  driven 
on  still  further  by  the  force  of  the  descending  current.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  steamer  going  upstream  strikes  a  sandbank  with  its  own  proper 
force  reduced  by  that  of  the  current  instead  of  increased  thereby,  and, 
as  a  sandbank  generally  presents  a  steep  face  on  its  downstream  side, 
the  steamer  either  cuts  through  the  crest  or  is  pulled  up  sharp  before 
it  is  seriously  embedded." 

The  altitude  above  sea-level  of  the  Congo  immediately 
below  Stanley  Falls  is  computed  by  Grenfell  at  1,380  feet.' 
At  the  mouth  of  the  Rubi  River  the  altitude  of  the  Congo  is 

'  Some  Belgian  authorities  cite  the  altitude  of  Stanleyville^  the  town  above  the 
river  bank,  at  450  metres  =  1,473  feet,  perhaps  an  over-estimate. 


l6o.  THE  MISSION  STEAMER  "GOODWILL"  BOW  ON  AT  VARU>L 
(The  figure  on  ihe  upper  deck  lo  the  right  is  the  late  Consul  Pickersgill.) 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


299 


1,230  feet.  The  figures  given  by  Grenfell  for  the  height  above 
sea-level  of  the  Congo  entering  Stanley  Pool  are  about  820 
feet,  and  at  the  exit  from  the  Pool  as  approximating  800  feet. 
The  Belgian  estimates  are  respectively  about  935  feet  and  915 
feet.  As  they  are  connected  with  railway  survey  work  they 
are  more  likely  to  be  correct  ;  but  the  discrepancy  is  re- 
markable. 

The  rate  at  which  the  Congo  current  flows  varies  very 
considerably  ;  it  seems  to  depend  somewhat  upon  the  height 
of  the  river,  and  to  be  modified  also  by  the  contour  of  the 
channel.  Generally  speaking,  the  current  is  faster  as  one 
approaches  the  higher  reaches.  The  fastest  currents  registered, 
except  at  points  where  exceptionally  accelerated,  have  been  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Basoko  and  beyond,  and  they  have 
ranged  from  300  to  350  feet  per  minute.  Near  Bopoto,  accord- 
ing to  season  and  location,  the  current  ranges  from  225  to  270 
feet  per  minute  ;  lower  down  river  the  mean  may  be  taken  as 
200  feet  per  minute.  Some  of  the  affluents  flow  at  a  slower 
rate,  and  range  from  a  speed  of  70  to  170  feet.  At  the  point 
where  the  Kasai  pours  through  its  narrowed  channel  into  the 
Congo,  the  current  is  not  less  than  600  to  700  feet  per  minute 
at  the  time  of  flood — about  the  same  rate  as  that  of  the  Congo 
itself  as  it  flows  out  of  the  Pool  round  Kallina  Point.  In 
September  the  Congo  runs  into  Lake  Ntomba  (at  Ilebo)  at 
about  a  mile  an  hour. 

On  the  Upper  Congo  each  year  is  characterized  by  two 
flood  seasons.  May  and  November,  prolonged  respectively  in 
some  places  to  June  and  December.  The  maximum  rise  in 
the  upper  reaches  towards  Stanley  Falls  is  about  eight  feet  at 
both  these  elates.^  At  Stanley  Pool  the  rise  in  May  is  not  so 
great,  but  in  November  and  December  it  is  nearly  twice  as 
much.    The  maximum  rise  here  would  seem  to  be  nine  feet. 

In  January  and  February  the  water  is  falling  everywhere 
over  the  Congo  system.  The  Mubangi  has  commenced  to 
fall  in  October,  and  by  this  time  is  near  its  minimum.  At  Stanley 
Falls  the  water  commences  to  fall  early  in  December,  but  at 
Stanley  Pool  the  maximum  is  at  times  not  reached  till  the  close 
of  the  month.  During  the  month  of  January  the  fall  is  very 
rapid,  and  by  the  end  of  the  month  the  river  is  very  low.  In 
April  there  is  a  very  general  rise,  and  the  Rubi-Loika  and  the 
Aruwimi  approach  their  high-water  marks.  By  May  the 
Congo  waters  are  so  much  hioher  than  those  of  the  Mubanoi 

*  "At  Stanley  Falls,  the  low  water  times  are  in  August,  September,  and  February. 
It  is  very  high  water  in  December."  (Grenfell.) 


300   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


that  there  is  a  flow  of  Congo  water  into  the  Mubangi  through 
the  Ibenga  Channel  and  flowing  northwards  to  o°  24'  south  of 
the  Equator.  The  same  thing  occurs  in  the  Ekinzi  and  Bwaiya 
channels  communicating  with  the  Sanga ;  they  serve,  according 
to  the  relative  heights  of  the  waters  of  the  San^a  and  the 
Congo,  as  outlets  or  inlets. 

As  there  are  two  high-water  seasons,  so  also  there  are  two 
seasons  of  low  water,  the  second  occurring-  in  Auofust  and 
September ;  and  at  some  points  these  are  the  months  of  the 
lowest  water  of  all  the  year.  Along  the  further  half  of  the 
upper  river  the  rising  and  falling  of  the  water  is  more  conspicuous 
than  further  downstream,  changes  of  two  or  three  feet  occurring 
in  a  day  or  so  without  persisting.  At  Bolobo  and  the  Pool  the 
rising  and  falling  are  most  regular  ;  the  rise  seldom  exceeds  two 
inches  per  day,  and  the  fall  is  rarely  more  than  three  inches 
in  a  similar  period.  This  greater  regularity  is  doubtless  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  inundated  plains,  thousands  of  square  miles 
in  extent,  which  are  under  water  every  season,  act  as  storage 
reservoirs,  as  Lake  Ntomba  also  does,  alternately  taking  and 
o-ivincr  the  water  as  the  river  rises  and  falls.^ 

At  Stanley  Falls  in  Lat.  0°  30'  N.,  January,  June,  and  July 
are  practically  dry  months.  There  is  heavy  rain  in  March, 
April,  August,  and  September. 

At  Stanley  Pool  (Lat.  3°  45'  S.)  the  dry  season  is  from  May 
or  June  to  October.  The  heavy  rains  here  fall  in  November, 
December,  February,  and  March.  On  the  Equatorial  Congo 
there  may  be  rain  in  any  month,  but  the  heaviest  downpour  is 
in  the  spring  and  autumn.  Very  rarely  there  are  inexplicable 
local  droughts,  such  as  that  at  Coquilhatville  (Equator  station) 
in  1895-6,  which  lasted  for  nine  months  without  any  rain,  doing 
extraordinary  damage  to  the  forests. 

The  average  annual  rainfall  at  places  like  Mobeka,  Bopoto, 
and  Basoko  is  not  far  short  of  one  hundred  inches.  At  Kwa- 
mouth  it  is  about  sixty  inches,  and  at  Stanley  Falls  between 

^  In  December  1894  the  flood  on  the  Mubangi  River  had  risen  so  that  the  Zongo 
barrier  was  under  water,  and  a  steamer  actually  wound  its  way  in  and  out  amongst  the 
houses  of  the  village.  At  Bolobo  at  the  end  of  November  in  this  year  (1894)  the  water 
was  the  highest  on  record.  Ordinarily  the  maximum  rise  at  Bolobo  is  between  the 
1st  and  15th  December. 

The  natives  of  Bangala  say  that  that  district  is  flooded  every  four  or  five  years. 
The  river  here  is  generally  highest  at  the  end  of  November. 

At  Stanley  Pool  the  fall  to  the  minimum  level  began  and  continued  in  February 
and  March.  The  level  rose  again  early  in  April,  and  five  or  six  feet  in  May  and 
June.  The  second  minimum  was  reached  in  the  middle  of  July.  The  big  rise 
commenced  in  August  or  September,  continuing  steadily  up  to  December. 

In  November  1903  the  Ikelemba  River  was  higher  than  it  had  been  for  six  years. 

Green  conferva;  in  the  water  show  that  it  is  rising. 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


301 


eighty  and  ninety.  These  figures  are  only  approximate.  [The 
Rev.  R.  V.  Glennie  recorded  the  rainfall  of  Bolobo  for  one  year 
in  1890.     It  was  only  fifty-six  inches.] 

The  riverain  peoples  of  the  Upper  Congo  between  Stanley 
Pool  and  Stanley  Falls  may  be  catalogued  as  follows  : — 

Beo'inninCT  on  the  west,  the  north  and  south  banks  are 
occupied  by  sections  of  the  Bateke  people  between  Stanley  Pool 
and  the  KwaTvasai.  On  the  north  (or  west)  bank  of  the 
Congo  the  Bateke  extend  further  than  on  the  south,  and  finally 
merge  into  the  Babangi  stock  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Lefini  River. 
Otherwise  they  extend  almost  to  the  Kwango  (so  far  as  linguis- 


161.    THE  VILLAGE  OF  LISALA,  NEAR  BOPOTO 


tic  relations  are  concerned).  Indeed,  in  this  respect  they  are 
closely  allied  with  the  Bamfwm  or  Wambunu  (Babundu)  and 
the  Babtmia  of  the  lower  Kwango  and  the  Kwa-Kasai,  and  even 
with  the  Bayaka  of  the  Kwango  valley  and  the  tribes  of  the 
lower  Kasai  and  Kwilu.  North  of  this  outlet  of  the  Kasai 
system,  the  right  bank  is  occupied  by  "  Bayanzi,"  overlying  re- 
lated antecedent  tribes  such  as  the  Banumi,  Bamoye,  Batende, 
Baktiti.  [The  Bakuti  are  perhaps  pygmies.]  On  the  north  or 
west  bank  of  the  Congo,  the  people  of  Bateke  connections 
seem  to  include  the  Bafuru  at  the  back  of  the  Babangi  settlers. 
The  Baloi  alono^  the  lower  Mubangi  and  between  that  river  and 
the  Congo  are  related  in  lanouage  to  both  the  Babangi  and  the 
Bangala.  Balolo  (Bankundu,  Mongo)  people  extend  their 
range  westwards  to  the  Upper  Congo  at  Coquilhatville,  and 
also  to  the  shores  of  Lake  Ntomba,  and  thence  across  the  Ruki 
and  Lulongo  rivers  to  the  Lomami.    North  of  this  line  they 


302   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


extend  quite  near  to  the  south  bank  of  the  main  Congo.  There 
would  seem  to  be  (according  to  Grenfel!)  numerous  indications 
of  the  presence  of  pygmy  races,  locally  known  as  Bativa,  Baputu, 
or  Baj'HJubi,  along  the  south  bank  of  the  Congo  and  between  the 
Ikelemba,  Chuapa,  Maringa,  and  Lopori  rivers.  Lord  Mount- 
morres  and  Holman  Bentley  both  noticed  red  pygmies  \_Biia] 
on  the  eastern  shores  of  Lake  Ntomba.  The  Bangala  people 
[Bangala  is  a  foreign  nickname]  on  the  banks  of  the  Upper 
Congo,  above  Lulanga,  offer  many  points  of  resemblance  with 
the  Bayanzi-Babangi  in  their  physique,  customs,  and  language. 
They  may  be  taken  to  include  most  of  the  riverain  inhabitants 
along  the  north  bank  as  far  as  the  mouth  of  the  Rubi.  Mainly 
along  the  south  bank,  opposite  Mobeka  and  Bopoto,  but  also 
in  the  interior  north  of  the  main  Congo,  there  are  colonies  or 
sections  of  the  Ngombe  tribe.  The  name  Ngombe  is  unsatis- 
factory, since  it  may  only  mean  "  bush"  or  "  interior"  people  : 
but  it  represents  a  considerable  though  scattered  group  of 
people  to  the  north  and  south  of  the  northern  Congo  with  a 
very  distinct  language. 

East  of  the  Rubi  confluence  with  the  Congo  begin  the  Basoko 
peoples,  to  whom  are  allied  in  language  the  Bauiiga  of  the 
south  bank,  the  natives  of  the  lower  Lomami  [Topoke),  the 
Lokele,  BakusiL  and  Bafoino}  of  either  side  of  the  Congo  as  far 
east  as  the  Lindi  River  and  Stanley  Falls.  Immediately  behind 
the  Bakele  on  the  north  river-bank  are  the  TtirtLinbii  or 
Barumbu,  the  Baugobaiigo  and  Babali,  extending  respectively  to 
the  Aruwimi  and  the  Lindi-Chopo.  Along  the  lower  Lindi  at 
Balila  are  people  related  to  the  Bagenya  of  the  Lualaba-Congo. 
The  Bamboli  dwellino-  to  the  westward  of  the  Baorenva  are 
connected  with  that  tribe  in  language  and  possibly  in  origin. 

On  his  earliest  journeys  in  1884-5  Grenfell  remarked  that 
when  he  reached  Stanley  Falls  a  decided  change  came  over  the 
Congo,  if  one  was  proceeding  from  the  west  eastwards.  This 
change  made  itself  noticeable  in  the  flora  and  in  the  more  rocky 
nature  of  the  oround. 

o 

At  various  periods  between  1885  and  1900  Grenfell  visited 
the  vicinity  of  Stanley  Falls  and  explored  the  Lindi  River  and 
the  Chopo,  which  enters  the  Lindi  by  an  abrupt  turn  close  to 
the  Lindi  confluence  with  the  Congo.  The  Chopo  is  remark- 
able for  its  magnificent  cascades  where  it  descends  abruptly 
from  the  hills  which  now  begin  to  bound  the  Congo  on  the  east. 
The  Chopo  Falls  are  at  no  great  distance  from  Stanleyville,  the 

'  Written  incorrectly  on  the  ethnographical  map  as  Batoma. 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


305 


State  capital  of  this  province,  and  from  the  large  Roman 
Catholic  Mission  of  St.  Gabriel. 

The  Baptist  Missionary  Society  have  long  been  settled  at 
a  station  called  Yakusu  or  "  Sargent "  (founded  originally  by 
Grenfell,  and  established  by  the  Rev.  W.  H.  White  out  of  funds 
furnished  by  Mr.  Sargent,  of  Bristol).  As  the  Chopo  Falls  can 
be  reached  by  water  from  the  main  Congo,  they  are  frequently 
a  rendezvous    ^^^m^^^^m^^  '^wnti  -  J"  -w 

for  pleasant  ■fln^^^^^£M|M|^'^' 
meetings  and  ^■tcsJ^^^BS^S^  v 
picnics  by  the 
missionaries  of 
the  two  de- 
nominations 
and  the  State 
officials. 

Prior  to 
1900  Grenfell 
had  ascended 
the  River  Lindi 
by  steamer  and 
canoes  and  had 
mapped  it  as 
far  to  the  north- 
east as  Kondo- 
lele,  where  the 
navisration  of 
the  river  is  ab- 
solutely inter- 
rupted by  catar- 
acts.  This 
stream,  how- 
ever, has  since 
been  traced  by 

Belgian  explorers  to  its  source,  which  is  situated  within  scarcely 
more  than  a  day's  walk  from  the  west  coast  of  Lake  Albert 
Edward.  The  general  course  of  the  Lindi  River  is  not  only 
remarkably  parallel  (somewhat  in  miniature)  to  the  main  course 
of  the  Aruwimi,  but,  except  at  its  confluence  with  the  Congo,  is 
all  along  separated  from  it  by  a  short  interval  of  land. 

Grenfell  remarked  the  absence  of  oil  palms  on  the  banks 
of  the  Lindi,  though  there  was  abundance  of  pandanus  (the 
same  species,  no  doubt,  as  is  found  in  the  rivers  of  Western 
Toro,  Uganda,  and  in  the  Ituri  Forest). 


163.  OFF  YAKUSU  BEACH 


3o6  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


The  Stanley  Falls  of  the  Lualaba-Congo  consist  of  seven 
distinct  cataracts,  extended  over  a  curving  stretch  of  fifty-six 
miles  in  length.  They  are  situated  a  few  miles  north  of  the 
Equator.  There  are  stretches  of  twenty-six  and  twenty-two 
miles  between  the  first  two  falls  (reached  from  the  west).  The 
fourth,  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  (counting  from  north  to  south)  are 
all  close  together.  Stanleyville,  the  Falls  Station,  is  on  the  north 
or  right  bank  of  the  Congo,  immediately  below  the  Falls,  on  an 
island  (practically)  which  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  a  narrow- 
inlet,  the  northern  mouth  of  which  makes  an  excellent  quiet 


164.    A  CORNER  OF  STANLEY  FALLS 


haven  for  steamers.  On  the  [highysouth  bank  from  which  rise 
red  sandstone  cliffs  there  are  various  commercial  establishments. 
When  the  last  of  the  seven  cataracts  has  been  passed  (the 
journey  from  the  western  suburb  of  Stanleyville  round  the 
Falls  is  now  made  by  railway)  the  traveller  reaches  the  im- 
portant station  of  Ponthierville,  named  after  a  gallant  Belgian 
officer  who  died  about  thirteen  years  ago  in  warfare  against  the 
Arabs.  The  railway  from  Stanleyville  was  carried  out  by 
the  same  group  that  so  successfully  built  the  line  from  Matadi 
to  Stanley  Pool. 

At  Ponthierville  navigation  can  be  resumed.  It  is  carried 
on  ordinarily  by  means  of  large  canoes  which  are  paddled  by 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


307 


the  river  people  native  to  this  part  of  the  Congo — the  Baenya 
or  Bagenya.^  In  all  this  part  of  its  course  the  general  name 
of  the  Congo  is  Lualaba/'  a  name  first  revealed  to  us  by 
Livingstone.  In  the  middle  of  the  Stanley  Falls  the  Lualaba- 
Congo  (as  seen  by  the  traveller  journeying  up  its  course) 
comes  from  almost  due  south,  and  this  north-and-south  course 
is  continuous  from  the  fourth  degree  of  S.  Latitude.  Above 
this  is  a  short  bend  running  from  south-east  to  north-west, 
and  higher  up  the  direction  is  north  and  south,  past  the 
junction  with  the  Luapula  and  as  far  as  the  Lualaba-Lufira 
confluence. 

From  Ponthierville  southwards  upstream,  the  Congo  is 


165.    THK  RAILWAY  LINE  ALONG  THE  LUALAHA-C(  iN  1 ,1  i  M  \l;   l'(  tNTHIERVlLLE, 
OPPOSITE  THE  MOUTH  OF  THE  LILU  RIVER 

easily  navigable  as  far  as  Kindu,  a  station  which  is  practi- 
cally identical  with  the  Riba-Riba  of  the  Arabs.  On  the  way 
the  important  affluent  of  the  Lowa  is  passed,  and  further  south 
the  Lulindi.  Both  the  Lowa  and  the  Lulindi  are  navigable  for 
a  short  distance  eastwards  from  their  confluence  with  the 
Congo.  On  the  Lowa,  steamer  navigation  is  stopped  by  the 
rapids  of  Bangoka,  near  the  junction  of  the  Luvuto  with 
the  Lowa.  Beyond  that  there  are  long  stretches  of  river 
navigable  by  canoes.  Grenfell  seems  in  this  way  to  have 
penetrated  some  distance  up  the  main  Lowa  and  the  equally 

^  Called  by  Stanley  the  Wenya  or  Wagenya. 

-  Apparently  originating  in  the  Nyangwe  district.  This  is  varied  as  Riu'lrowa, 
Lualovva. 


3o8   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


important  Ozo  River.  On  the  Ozo  (if  I  am  correctly  interpret- 
ing- notes  on  one  of  his  maps)  he  reached  the  settlement  of 
Boko,  which  is  within  about  a  hundred  miles  of  Lake  Albert 
Edward.  Up  the  Lowa,  which  is  the  southern  branch,  he 
penetrated  as  far  as  the  mountain  of  Monkela. 

Between  this  section  of  the  Lualaba  and  the  Lomami  on 
the  west  the  land  is  very  swampy,  and  the  many  marshes  are 
undoubtedly  the  remains  of  a  former  lake.  Grenfell  found  the 
altitude  of  the  Lomami  at  S.  Lat.  i°  30'  to  be  only  1,493  ^^^^t. 

Between  the  Lowa  and  the  Lulindi  on  the  south  there  is 


lOO.    SAW-MILLS  ON  THE  RAILWAY  BETWEEN  STANLEY  FALLS 
AND  PONTHIERVILLE 


a  considerable  tract  of  marshy  country,  almost  like  an  indefinite 
lake.  This  may  represent  the  Lake  Ozo  of  Arab  reports  which 
occasionally  appeared  on  African  maps  in  the  'seventies  of  the 
last  century  and  was  confused  in  the  minds  of  geographers 
with  the  actual  Lake  Kivu.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  at 
one  time  there  was  a  large  shallow  lake  in  this  region,  com- 
pletely separated  from  Lake  Kivu,  however,  by  a  high  mountain 
rancre,  but  united  across  the  Cono-o  with  the  Lomami  Lake. 
Hereabouts  is  the  country  of  Bulega,  the  people  of  which  are 
of  some  ethnological  interest,  as  their  language  is  an  outlying 
member  of  the  Uganda -Tanganyika  group,  and  sharply 
defined  from  the  more  corrupt  Bantu  tongues  of  the  northern 
Congo  basin. 


THE  RIVER  CONGO  309 

At  Kindu,  nearly  opposite  Riba-Riba,  a  new  line  of  railway 
is  being  constructed  by  the  Belgians,  which  is  to  pass  round 
the  disturbed  waters  of  the  Conoco  to  the  broad,  lake-like  river 
about  twenty  miles  north  of  the  Lukuga  affluent  and  thence 
across  the  Congo  to  Tanganyika.  Mr.  Sutton  Smith  of  the 
Baptist  Mission  (Yakusu)  writes  in  a  recent  report : — • 

"  At  the  railway  works  at  Kindu  I  was  gratified  to  see  the  evident 
desire  on  the  part  of  officials  to  care  for  the  well-being  of  the  hundreds 
of  native  employes,  and  was  shown  houses  which  are  being  erected  for 
their  comfort.    They  intend  to  carry  through  the  work  as  far  as  is 


167.    A  TRAIN  ON  THE  RAILWAY  FROM  STANLEY  FALLS  TO  PONTHIERVILLE 


humanly  possible  with  a  minimum  of  sickness.  All  I  saw  at  work 
looked  strong,  healthy,  and  happy.  I  was  glad  to  find  a  Lokele  youth 
there  responsible  for  some  lads  who  were  brick-making,  one  who  worked 
for  me  when  building  my  house  in  1904,  and  who  attended  our  school. 
The  official  who  took  me  round  gave  me  a  good  report  of  him  quite 
gratuitously,  and  readily  consented  to  let  me  leave  ten  primers  and  ten 
reading-books  with  him  to  help  some  of  his  friends  to  learn  to  read."^ 

The  Congo  is  still  navigable  in  sections  for  canoes  above  Riba- 
Riba,  as  far  south  as  the  cataracts  of  Kibombo  and  Chambo  near 
Nyangwe.    The  last-named  rapids  in  the  Buvinza  country  are 

1  Grenfell  accords  warm  praise  to  the  conduct  of  the  railway  survey  parties  who 
were  to  examine  the  hne  for  a  railway  from  Stanley  Falls  to  Lake  Albert  Nyanza  and 
on  to  Lado.  So  well  conducted  has  Belgian  railway  work  been  in  the  basin  of  the 
Congo,  generally  under  the  supervision  of  Colonel  Thys,  that  one  is  almost  tempted 
to  suggest  that  the  Congo  difficulty  should  be  solved  by  Belgium  selecting  Colonel 
Thys  as  Governor-General  over  the  whole  of  this  region. 


3IO   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


practically  impassable,  but  above  these  the  Congo  spreads  out  to 
almost  lake-like  proportions  on  either  side  of  Nyangwe.  At 
Jakoba  (the  Hinde  Rapids)  the  narrow  river  flowing  through 
a  deep  gorge  is  quite  unnavigable  except  by  canoes  in  the  flood 
season. 

Between  Kasongo  on  the  south  and  Stanley  Falls  on  the 
north,  no  hill  of  any  great  eminence  approaches  close  to  the 
banks  of  the  great  river,  which  flows  for  the  most  part  through 
park-like  or  even  treeless  country,  covered  nowadays  with 
enormous  rice-fields  that  have  been  started  and  carried  on  by 
the  Arabs.  But  above  Kasongo  the  highlands  approach  nearer 
and  nearer  to  the  river-banks,  and  in  the  Cameron  Falls,  begin- 
ning at  the  Fortes  d'Enfer  and  Kongolo,  the  much-narrowed 
Congo  flows  between  two  mountain  ridges  (Cleveland  and 
Dhanis),  which  are  respectively  4,000  and  3,500  feet  in  altitude 
above  sea-level.  A  great  spur  of  mountain  country — the  Bam- 
bare  Mountains — stretches  in  a  north-westerly  direction  from  the 
western  shores  of  Tanganyika  to  the  vicinity  of  Nyangwe.  This 
hilly  region  is  the  original  Manyema  country,  bounded  on  the 
north  by  the  River  Elila  and  on  the  south  by  the  Luama.  A 
high,  broken  plateau  flanks  the  western  coast  of  Tanganyika  like 
a  huge  rampart,  and  has  been  carved  here  and  there  by  rivers  and 
rain  into  separate  table-topped  mountain  ranges.  Northwards 
from  the  Manyema  country  these  become  more  peak-like  and 
jagged,  increasing  in  altitude  till  they  attain  heights  possibly  of 
7,000  feet.  They  link  up  with  the  volcanic  peaks  of  Mfumbiro 
(Virunga),^  and  spread  out  like  a  fan  as  they  approach  the  Sem- 
liki  River  and  Lake  Albert  Edward  on  the  east,  the  upper  Lindi 
River  on  the  north,  and  the  Stanley  Falls  district  on  the  west. 

Much  of  this  reoion  north  of  the  Elila  ooes  bv  the  name  of 
the  Bulega  country.  This  merges  into  Bukonjo,  and  further 
north  still  into  Bukumu.  The  people  of  Bukumu  (known  by 
their  neighbours  as  the  Bakumu)  are,  in  common  with  the 
closely  allied  VVamanga,  not  a  race  speaking  a  Bantu  language. 
Bukonjo  is  a  name  applied  by  the  present  writer  somewhat 
vaguely  to  the  splendid  mountain  country  inhabited  in  the 
greater  part  by  the  Bakonjo  people,  a  race  described  in  his 
work  on  the  Uganda  Protectorate.  The  Bakonjo  extend  to  the 
north  as  far  as  the  southern  flanks  of  Ruwenzori  and  the 
western  part  of  the  Toro  kingdom.  South  of  Bulega,  between 
the  Lulindi  and  the  Elila,  is  a  district  known  as  Bukombe. 

'  From  1 1,000  to  14,600  feet  in  height.  Discovered  by  Speke  in  1861  ;  sighted 
by  Stanley  in  1S75  ;  definitely  explored  by  Count  Goetzen  in  1893,  and  again  by 
Grogan  and  Sharpe  in  1899,  and  by  J.  E.  IVIoore  (who  ascended  them)  in  1900. 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


311 


The  present  writer  has  had  a  g-limpse  of  this  magnificent 
mountain  reoion  of  Eastern  Conoroland  from  the  north  to  the 

o  o 

west  of  the  SemHki  River.  To  him  it  seemed  a  veritable  Land 
of  Beulah.  It  is  by  no  means  over-forested,  and  has  many  rich 
Alpine  pastures.  It  is  therefore  particularly  well  suited  for  the 
rearino-  of  cattle.  This  is  the  one  res^ion  of  the  Cons^o  Free  State 
which  is  legitimately  open  to  white  colonization.  The  native 
inhabitants  are  not  very  numerous  (owing  to  the  cold  in  the  upper 
regions),  the  country  is  healthy,  well  watered,  well  wooded,  and 


-  I  1.  -  I  -  I  I  '  '  ,  ,  ,  .\  KEN  STANLEY  FALLS 
AND  I'ONTHIliRVlLLE 


extremely  fertile.  For  beauty  of  scenery  it  is  reported  to  be  one 
of  the  most  notable  parts  of  Africa. 

According  to  Grenfell,  Nyangwe  is  at  an  altitude  of 
1,531  feet  above  sea-level.^  He  computes  the  altitude  of 
Kasongo,  some  thirty  miles  farther  up  the  Congo,  at  thirty-nine 
feet  higher  than  Nyangwe.  As  the  altitude  of  the  river  below 
Stanley  Falls  may  average  1,400  feet,  there  would  thus  be  an 

'  He  visited  this  place  on  the  i6th  of  May  1903.  His  estimate  of  altitudes  here 
as  elsewhere  differs  considerably  from  the  data  given  by  Belgian  explorers,  but  in 
regard  to  Nyangwe  and  Stanley  Falls  it  would  seem  as  though  Grenfell  were  more 
nearly  right.  The  Belgian  altitude  for  Nyangwe  is  550  metres=  1,803  feet,  and 
obviously  refers  to  high  land  near  the  banks  and  not  to  the  level  of  the  river.  The 
Belgian  altitude  for  Stanleyville  is  1,473  feet  'is  against  Grenfell's  1,380  feet  for  the 
altitude  of  the  river-level  below  the  last  of  the  Stanley  Falls.  The  altitude  of  the 
Lomami  at  1°  30'  S.  is  1,493  feet. 


312    GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


approximate  descent  in  level  over  this  long  stretch  of  river  of 
only  1 70-80  feet. 

The  Cameron  Falls  and  the  adjacent  Hinde  Rapids^  con- 
stitute one  of  the  most  troubled  sections  of  the  Lualaba-Congo. 
Over  a  stretch  of  about  fifty  miles  of  river  there  are  fifteen 
cataracts.  The  scenery  here  is  very  grand  in  places  :  the  lower 
rocks  like  those  of  the  Stanley- Pool -Manyanga  Gorge,  are 
stained  purple-brown,  indian-red,  or  even  black  with  the  iron 
in  the  water.  In  strikino-  contrast  are  the  bare  islands  and 
towering  cliffs  of  white  quartz.  The  groves  of  fine  trees  and 
flowering  creepers  add  the  grace  of  rich  vegetation  to  fan- 
tastic Claude-like  landscapes.     Above  the  southernmost  of 


169.    LUALABA-CONGO  ABOVE  STANLEY  FALLS 


these  falls,  at  Kongolo,  the  Lualaba  is  once  more  almost  lake- 
like, and  is  navigable  past  the  confluence  of  the  Lukuga  to 
the  point  where  the  Luapula  joins  the  Lualaba,  and  onwards, 
upstream,  to  the  south  for  another  two  hundred  miles. 

Grenfell's  researches  do  not  seem  to  have  extended  beyond 
the  northernmost  of  the  Hinde  Cataracts.  For  the  convenience 
of  the  reader,  however,  who  may  wish  to  obtain  a  general 
apercu  of  the  whole  Congo  basin,  I  will  note  the  remaining 
points  of  interest  about  the  southern  Congo  region. 

The  Lukuga  River  (called  Lumbiriji  in  its  western  course) 
is  the  outlet  of  Lake  Tanganyika  by  a  quite  recent  afterthought 

'  After  Captain  Sidney  Hinde,  who  served  the  Congo  Free  State  as  a  mihtary 
and  medical  officer  in  the  campaign  under  Baron  Uhanis  against  the  Arabs,  and  who 
with  Consul  Mohun  (U.S.A.)  was  the  first  to  survey  this  piece  of  the  river. 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


313 


of  nature.  The  short,  narrow  canal  (Mitwanzi)  which  connects 
Tanganyika  with  the  main  Lukuga  is  not  the  principal  branch 
of  the  river  which  rises  on  the  north-west  of  the  Marungu 
plateau.  Tanganyika  may  have  belonged  once  to  the  Nile 
system  [more  probably  to  the  Victoria  Nyanza  inland  sea],  and 
have  been  cut  off  from  Lake  Albert  Edward  by  the  volcanic  out- 
burst which  lifted  up  that  portion  of  the  Rift  valley  containing 
Lake  Kivu.  The  native  legends  about  Tanganyika  may  indi- 
cate that  these  changes  occurred  only  a  few  thousand  years  ago. 
Its  Mitwanzi  outlet  is  constantly  choked  with  grass  and  weed. 


170.   I.UALABA-CONGO  IN  THE  VICINITY  OF  NYANGWE 


At  Ankoro,  in  about  S.  Lat.  6°  12',  the  Luapula  (Luvua) 
unites  with  the  Lualaba.  Some  geographical  authorities  prefer 
to  consider  the  Lualaba  (which  above  the  Luapula  confluence  is 
sometimes  known  by  the  names  of  Kamulondo  and  Nzilo)  as 
the  head-stream  of  the  Congo.  This  may  be  the  case  so  far  as 
volume  of  water  is  concerned,  but  certainly  not  as  regards 
length  of  course.  The  honour  of  being  the  extreme  upper 
Congo  must  be  assigned  to  the  Luapula,  discovered  or  redis- 
covered^ by  Livingstone  in  1867.  The  ultimate  source  of  the 
Luapula  is  really  the  head-stream  of  the  Chambezi  River,  which 

'  The  first  intimation  of  the  existence  of  this  river  is  probably  due  to  the 
Portuguese  explorers  Monteiro  and  Gamitlo  in  1832. 


314   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


rises  a  few  miles  south  of  the  southern  extremity  of  Tanganyika 
(in  British  Central  Africa)  in  about  Lat.  9°  10'  S.  Other  sources 
of  the  Chambezi  under  the  name  of  Chozi  or  Karungfu  rise 
much  further  to  the  east,  on  the  very  edge  of  the  Nyasa- 
Tanganyika  plateau.  The  source  of  the  Karungu,  which 
perhaps  for  length  should  be  really  considered  the  upper  Cham- 
bezi River,  is  within  about  forty  miles  of  the  north  end  of  Lake 
Nyasa. 

The  Chambezi  flows  into  the  south-eastern  part  of  Lake 
Bangweulu,  losing  itself  in  the  extensive  marshes  which  mask 
the  southern  end  of  that  lake  and  make  it  very  difficult  to 
define  either  in  its  limits  or  the  exact  course  taken  by  the  Lua- 
pula  where  it  issues  from  Bangweulu.     It  is  hardly,  however. 


171.    A  slAlh  CANUE  ON    THE  LUALABA-CONGO,  BETWEEN  PONTHI ERVILLE 

AND  NVANGWE 


unreasonable  to  consider  the  Chambezi  as  the  upper  Luapula, 
and  Lake  Bangweulu  as  a  vast  backwater  of  the  infant  Congo. 
Once  the  Luapula  is  clear  of  the  marshy  region  of  Bangweulu 
(its  altitude  above  sea-level  where  it  issues  from  the  lake  is 
about  3,675  feet).  It  makes  a  deep  bend  south,^  and  then  curves 
round  abruptly  west  and  north,  flowing  through  a  mountainous 
country  with  numerous  cataracts.  The  troubled  water  ends  for 
a  time  at  the  Johnston  Falls,-  from  which  point  the  Luapula  is 
navigable  through  a  marshy  region  into  Lake  Mweru.  The 

^  The  source  of  the  southernmost  affluent  of  the  Luapula  [and  consequently  the 
southernmost  point  of  the  Congo  basin]  is  placed  (approximately)  in  S.  Lat.  13°  30'. 

^  These  falls  w  ere  discovered  by  Sir  Alfred  Sharpe  in  1892,  and  named  after  the 
present  writer,  who  at  that  time  was  administering  British  Central  Africa.  Sir  Alfred 
Sharpe  also  discovered  the  brackish  Mweru  Swamp  to  the  east  of  the  large  lake. 
This  swamp  overflows  into  the  Kalungwizi  River,  and  thus  into  the  big  Lake  Mweru. 
Livingstone  discovered  both  Bangweulu  and  Mweru  (1868  and  1867).  Mweru  was 
first  correctly  surveyed  and  mapped  by  (Sir)  Alfred  Sharpe  (1890-2),  and  Bangweulu 
by  Captain  Giraud  (1883),  and  by  Captain  Weatherly  (1894-7). 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


315 


Luapula  where  it  leaves  Lake  Mweru  (altitude  above  sea-level 
about  3,000  feet)  ^  takes  sharp  twists  and  turns,  and  flows 
through  a  mountainous  country.  So  far  as  it  has  been  explored 
it  is  navigable  for  about  fifty  miles  above  its  junction  with  the 
Lualaba.  As  its  altitude  at  this  point  is  only  approximately 
1,780  feet,  it  is  obvious  that  over  a  course  of  about  [80  miles 
from  the  north  end  of  Lake  Mweru  to  its  emeroence  into  the 
plain  at  Kiambi  the  Luapula  descends  1,220  feet,  in  what  must 
be  a  perfect  millrace. 


172.    ON  LAKE  BANGWEULU 


The  Lualaba,  on  the  other  hand,  between  Ankoro  and  Lake 
Kasale  has  a  slow  current,  and  flows  through  a  swampy  region 
beset  with  many  lakes  and  pools.  Here  no  doubt  was  once  a 
large  lake,  three  or  four  times  the  size  of  Bangweulu.  The 
Lualaba  would  appear  to  be  navigable  for  small  steamers  or  at 
any  rate  for  canoes  as  far  up  its  course  as  Kazemba,  near  the 
Kambudi  Falls.  Above  that  again  (where  the  river  bears  the 
local  name  of  Nzilo)  there  are  many  cataracts,  usually  known 
as  the  Delcommune  Falls,  after  their  discoverer,  A.  Del- 

^  The  observations  of  Sharpe  and  others  give  to  Lake  Mweru  an  altitude  above 
sea-level  of  3,1 16  feet ;  but  the  Belgian  observers  reduce  the  altitude  to  900  metres — 
2,949  feet. 


3i6   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


commune.  The  source  of  the  Lualaba  is  double  or  treble.  The 
river  rises  from  both  eastern  and  western  flanks  of  the  moun- 
tain range  of  Chafukuma,  almost  as  far  south  as  the  12°  S.  Lat., 
at  an  altitude  of  about  5,000  feet.  The  Lualaba  receives 
on  the  far  south-west  an  important  affluent  known  as  the 
Lubudi  ;  but  it  is  also  joined  at  Lake  Kasale  by  a  river — the 
Lufira — almost  as  important  in  length  of  course  and  volume  as 
the  Lualaba  itself.  There  is  in  fact  the  most  remarkable 
reversed  resemblance  between  the  direction  and  course  taken 
by  the  Lualaba  (Nzilo)  and  the  Lufira,  almost  as  though  one 


173.   JOHNSTON  FALLS,  LUAPULA  RIVER 


were  the  mirror  of  the  other.  Both  rise  ultimately  within  a  few 
miles  of  each  other  on  the  slopes  of  Mount  Chafukuma. 

Between  the  Lualaba  and  the  Lufira  is  the  important  country 
of  Katanga,  remarkable  for  its  mineral  wealth,  and  amongst 
many  other  interesting  features,  for  its  cave-dwellers.  A  few 
miles  from  the  source  of  the  Lualaba  rises  a  cone-shaped  hill 
about  300  feet  high,  formed  (according  to  Torday)  entirely  of 
magnetic  ore.  On  the  slopes  of  this  hill  are  cave-dwellers 
belonoincr  to  the  Basango  tribe.  Even  a  section  of  the 
Alunda  race  has  taken  to  living  in  caves  to  the  west  of  the 
Lualaba.  On  the  banks  of  the  Dikulue  (the  river  which  with 
the  Lufira  practically  encloses  the  district  of  Katanga  proper) 
the  Bena  Mutumba  are  cave-dwellers,  and  seem  to  have  been 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


317 


so  always.  Paul  Le  Marinel  calls  these  people  the  Bena 
Kabombo,  and  states  they  are  few  in  number,  very  wild,  have 
no  huts  inside  caverns,  and  have  only  quite  recently  taken  to 
agriculture.  Hitherto  they  were  hunters  pure  and  simple,  and 
they  seem  to  have  some  affinities  with  the  Bushman  type  in  the 
lofty  Kunde-irungo  (Kundelungu,  Kwandelungu)  Mountains, 
which  stretch  between  the  Luapula  and  the  Lufira.  The 
Balomotwa  tribe  live  in  passages  of  great  depth  hollowed  out 
in  the  mountain  side,  the  entrances  to  which  appear  like  tiny 
gates  of  Egyptian  temples,  excavated  in  the  perpendicular  faces 
of  the  red  cliffs.^ 

The  south-eastern  corner  of  the  Congo  Free  State  is  in  fact 
a  relatively  lofty  plateau  from  2,500  to  3,000  feet  above  sea- 
level,  rising  on  every  side  to  altitudes  of  4,000  to  6,000  feet. 
This  plateau  has  been  carved  by  water  into  ranges  and  clumps 
of  table-topped  mountains  following  a  general  direction  of  S.W. 
to  N.E. 

The  boundary  of  the  southern  watershed  of  the  Congo  (and 
the  northern  watershed  of  the  Zambezi)  is  represented  by  a  huge 
earth-wrinkle  running  for  the  most  part  in  an  east  and  west 
direction,  almost  at  right  angles  to  the  courses  of  the  rivers 
which  flow  on  either  side  of  it  to  the  north  or  south.  This 
region  is  much  more  like  a  chain  of  mountains  than  the  broken 
plateau  to  the  north,  but  the  altitudes  are  nowhere  very  re- 
markable, the  highest  point  being  either  Mount  Kamea  (a  ridge 
or  massif  from  whose  flanks  rise  the  Lulua,  Lubudi,  or  Zambezi) 
or  Mount  Chafukuma.  Either  of  these  mountains  may  be 
5,600  feet  in  altitude,  more  or  less. 

Livingstone  was  not  far  wrong  instinctively  when  he  thought 
in  the  Chambezi,  Bangweulu,  and  Tanganyika  he  had  found 
the  Fountains  of  the  Nile.  The  researches  of  M.  Wauters, 
based  on  Belgian  and  British  explorations,  show  that  the  long, 
diaQonal  ranoe  of  the  Mitumba  mountains  once  limited  the 
Congo  basin  on  the  south-east.  The  Lubudi  was  the  real 
source  of  the  Congo.  The  infant  Lualaba  and  its  lake  Kinyata 
united  north-eastwards  with  the  Juo  lake  of  the  Lufira,  and  this 
again  with  Mweru  and  the  mountain  Luapula.  The  waters  of 
the  Chambezi- Bangweulu-Luapula  found  their  way  into  Tan- 
ganyika at  Mpala.  And  Tanganyika,  before  the  blocking  of 
the  Albertine  Rift  valley  of  the  Virunga  volcanoes  and  the 
breach  of  the  Mitwanzi-Lukuga  gorge,  sent  its  waters  to  the 
Nile,  at  any  rate  to  the  vast  inland  sea  of  the  Victoria  Nyanza. 

1  Dr.  Cornet  was  the  first  to  draw  attention  to  these  Balomotwa  cave-dwellers,  whom 
he  discovered  in  1892.    See  page  726. 


3i8   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


The  country  of  Katanga  has  been  the  scene  of  operations 
of  a  concessiomiaire  company,  mainly  British  in  its  direction, 
and  is  a  land  that  has  long  been  famous  by  report  for  its  mineral 
wealth.  Katanga  was  heard  of  by  the  early  Portuguese 
explorers,  Lacerda,  the  Pombeiros,  Gra9a,  INIonteiro,  and 
Gamitto,  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  and  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  centuries.  Livingstone  in  1854  sent  reports  of  it 
from  Arabs  who  had  already  reached  the  territories  of  the 
Mwata  Yanvo  in  1853,  and  he  obtained  more  precise  informa- 
tion as  to  this  land  of  malachite,  copper,  and  gold  on  his  last 
journeys  between  1867  and  1873.  Katanga  was  first  explored 
to  any  extent  by  the  missionary  F.  S.  Arnot  in  1882-4,  Its 
southern  borders  were  traversed  and  accurately  mapped  by 
Capello  and  Ivens  in  1884-5. 

The  Arabs  must  have  reached  Katanga  at  a  relatively  early 
date  in  their  Central  African  adventures,  probably  long  before 
they  discovered  and  settled  on  the  Lualaba.  Apparently  they 
were  drawn  in  this  direction  by  the  Bisa  traders.  This  tribe  of 
the  Babisa  (as  related  by  the  present  writer  in  other  works  on 
Africa)  played  a  very  important  part  in  the  development  of 
South-Central  Africa.  Their  own  habitat  lies  to  the  south  and 
east  of  Lake  Banorweulu  ;  but  somewhere  about  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century  they  had  got  into  touch  with  the 
Portuguese  on  the  central  Zambezi  (being  further  influenced  by 
the  passage  through  their  territories  of  Portuguese  expeditions), 
and  had  begun  to  organise  caravans  of  their  own  to  proceed  to 
the  Mozambique  coast.  By  this  trade  with  the  Portuguese 
they  acquired  guns,  and  thus  became  bold  in  their  relations 
with  surrounding  tribes.  On  their  return  journeys  from  the 
coast  to  the  interior  they  drew  the  Arabs  back  with  them, 
Arabs  (of  a  very  negroid  type)  having  been  settled  on  the  east 
and  south-east  coasts  of  Africa  from  time  immemorial.  Thus 
the  Arabs  throuoh  the  Bisa  territories  arrived  in  Katanga  and 
the  lands  of  Lunda  some  twenty  years  before  they  had  estab- 
lished a  direct  overland  route  from  Zanzibar  to  Tanganyika 
and  Tanganyika  to  the  Upper  Congo. ^ 

What  attracted  the  attention  of  the  Arabs  more  especially 
in  exploring  Katanga  was  the  presence  of  malachite.  This 
beautiful  green  stone  was  exported  by  them  in  large  quantities 
to  Zanzibar. 

Partly  owing  to  Arab  influence  and  guns,  a  negro  adven- 
turer, Msidi  or  Msiri,  actually  a  native  of  the  Western  Unyam- 

1  The  Zanzibar  Arabs  reached  Tabora  (Unyamwezi)  in  1830,  and  Ujiji  (Tan- 
ganyika) in  1840. 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


319 


wezi  country,  east  of  Tanganyika,  whose  father  was  a  former 
follower  of  the  Arabs — established  himself  with  a  rabble  of 
Wanyamwezi  fighting  men  as  supreme  chief  over  the  Katanga 
country  about  the  years  1866-1870.^  F.  S.  Arnot,  a  missionary 
of  the  Plymouth  Brethren,  after  his  first  voyage  of  discovery 
in  1884,  settled  with  a  number  of  his  colleagues  at  the  court  of 
Msiri,  and  one  of  these  missionaries,  Crawford,  became  in  some 
way  a  secretary  or  adviser  to  Msiri,  while  C.  A.  Swan  made 
use  of  his  opportunities  to  study  and  illustrate  the  local  language, 
which  he  styled  Chiluba.  Through  the  presence  of  these 
English  and  Scottish  missionaries  in  Katanga,  the  country  had 
become  somewhat  inclined  towards  a  political  connection  with 
the  British  at  the  time  when  there  were  rumours  of  a  British 
Protectorate  over  Nyasaland. 

The  subsequent  history  of  this  movement  will  be  related  in 
another  chapter,  but  the  strong  interest  taken  by  the  British  in 
the  development  of  Katanga  was  to  a  certain  extent  recognized 
by  the  King  of  the  Belgians  in  granting  far-reaching  conces- 
sions to  an  Anglo- Belgian  Company,  which  is  now  endeavour- 
ing to  connect  Katanga  by  a  direct  railway  with  the  port  of 
Lobito  Bay  on  the  Atlantic  coast  of  Angola. 

West  of  Katanga  and  the  watershed  of  the  Lualaba-Lubudi, 
the  mountainous  character  of  the  country  somewhat  diminishes, 
except  for  the  well-marked  ridge  of  the  Zambezi-Congo  water- 
parting.  The  south-western  limits  of  the  Congo  Free  State 
are  the  special  domain  of  the  Lulua  and  Kasai  rivers,  which 
with  their  tributaries  flow  northwards  in  almost  parallel  direc- 
tions through  the  lands  of  the  former  Lunda  empire.  The 
mountainous  character  of  the  Katangra  regfions  has  to  a  g^reat 
extent  preserved  the  pristine  savagery  of  the  land  and  of  its  in- 
habitants ;  but  the  Lunda  territories  (which  extended  at  one 
time  along  the  course  of  the  Luapula  to  Lakes  Mweru  and 
Bangweulu)^  have  long  been,  as  it  were,  trampled  by  man, 
their  forests  abated,  and  a  good  deal  of  cultivation  and  even  a 
slightly  European  civilization  introduced,  long  before  the  white 
man  came  there  to  rule. 

Between  the  Lulua,  the  Sankuru,  and  the  Lomami  is  a 
densely  forested  region  which  extends  southwards  to  about 

^  He  called  his  kingdom,  Garenganze. 

^  At  some  period  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  the  Mwata  Yanvo  of 
Lunda  extended  his  conquests  across  the  Luapula  to  Lake  Mweru.  On  the  upper 
Luapula  he  established  a  viceroy  ("  Kazembe "),  and  a  small  section  of  the  Lunda 
people  remained  there  in  a  Lunda  kingdom  of  some  strength  until  the  British  power 
was  established  in  these  regions  by  Sir  Alfred  Sharpe  in  1892-9. 


320   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Lat.  6°.  To  the  west  and  south  of  this  crreat  Sankuru  forest, 
the  Lunda  influence,  stretching  at  one  time  from  the  south-west 
coast  of  Tanganyika  right  across  to  the  frontiers  of  Angola, 
has  not  only  dismantled  the  country  of  its  woods,  except  in 
the  deep  river  valleys,  but  has  considerably  affected  the  wild 
game.  Across  the  Lunda  belt,  the  Bantu  civilization,  coming 
no  doubt  round  the  south  end  of  Tanganyika  from  the  direc- 
tion of  Uganda,  early  perfected  hunting  methods  through  the 
use  of  iron  weapons,  and  from  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 

century  on- 
wards, guns 
and  gunpowder 
derived  from 
the  Portuguese 
assisted  this 
more  enterpris- 
ing people  in 
k  i  1 1  i  n  o-  e  1  e  - 
phants  and  all 
the  larger 
mammals.  The 

L     I^KMM  ^^hdLk  ''^^^Ki'^HVfld    Lunda  coun- 

^  #^WvWM^^Hfc  -^Klii^^fflHnl  tries,  therefore, 

are  most  disap- 
pointing at  the 
present  day 

«from  the  point 
  of  view  of  the 

bia--Qame  hun- 
ter.  But  within 
the  basin  of  the 
Lualaba,  below 

its  junction  with  the  Luapula,  and  also  between  the  Lualaba 
and  south-west  Tanganyika  (including  all  the  lower  course  of 
the  Luapula),  there  still  remains  one  of  the  finest  big-game 
countries  in  the  world  :  swarms  of  antelopes,  large  herds  of 
buffalo  (in  spite  of  the  devastations  of  the  cattle  plague  twenty 
years  ago),  rhinoceros,  lion,  zebra,  and  giraffe.  The  western 
extension  of  many  of  these  beasts  is  arrested  by  the  mountainous 
country  which  separates  the  basin  of  the  Lualaba  from  that  of 
the  Lomami  and  the  Sankuru  ;  but  the  lion  is  found  in  the 
basin  of  the  Lulua-Kasai  and  extends  its  ranoe  in  the  Kasai 
region  as  far  north  as  6°  S.  Lat.  or  even  farther,  where  there 
is  no  dense  forest. 


174.  i  kmale  of  the  keh  forest  kuffalo 
(bos  gaffer  nanus) 

From  the  forest  region  of  S.  Central  Congoland.    (Shot  on  one  of 
Grenfell's  expeditions). 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


321 


South-Eastern  Congroland  is  also  much  richer  in  obvious 
bird  life — especially  in  aquatic  birds — than  the  western  and 
northern  regions.  The  present  writer  in  his  work  on  British 
Central  Africa  has  dilated  on  the  almost  fabulous  abundance  of 
storks,  herons,  flamingoes,  pelicans,  cranes,  ibises,  geese,  and 
ducks  at  the  south  end  of  Lake  Tanganyika.  Captain  Hinde 
describes  the  grassy  flats  along  the  lower  Luapula  as  being-, 
literally  covered  with  flocks  of  spur-winged  geese. 

The  rainfall  of  Southern  Congoland  and  of  the  Lualaba- 
Congo  does  not  vary  so  much  as  in  the  northern  and  western 
divisions  of  the  Congo  Free  State.  It  probably  amounts  to  an 
annual  average  of  seventy  inches.  Between  Stanley  Falls  and 
Nyangwe  the  an- 
nual rainfall  ranges 
from  about  eighty 
to  seventy  inches. 
Between  Nyangwe 
and  Lake  Mweru 
it  is  about  seventy 
inches.  The  rain- 
fall in  Katanga,  on 
the  Nyasa  -  Tan  - 
ganyika  plateau, 
Bangweulu,  and 
Southern  Congo- 
land  in  general  is 
about  sixty  inches 
per  annum.  But 
between  the  Lomami,  the  Kasai,  and  the  Lukenye  River  on 
the  north  and  the  sixth  degree  of  S.  Latitude  on  the  south — 
in  short,  over  the  forest  region  of  South-Central  Congoland 
— the  rainfall  is  more  like  ninety  inches  per  annum. 

Accordinor  to  Grenfell,  the  Lualaba  -  Concjo  reaches  its 
greatest  height  between  April  and  May  and  its  lowest  water 
about  September,  with  another  considerable  rise  in  December, 
which  begins  to  decrease  in  January. 

The    peoples^   of  this  region   may   be   enumerated  as 

'  In  any  enumeration  of  the  peoples  of  Eastern  Congoland  the  Arab  element 
must  be  taken  into  account.  In  the  upper  valley  of  the  Aruwimi,  between  the  Lindi 
and  the  Lomami,  the  Swahili  Arabs  of  Zanzibar  and  their  Manyema  allies  have 
Muhammadanized  and  disciplined  such  of  the  native  population  as  they  did  not 
exterminate. 

Of  the  large,  thriving  townships  above  Stanleyville  Lord  Mountmorres  writes  : 
"The  scene  might  well  be  laid  in  Morocco.  .  .  .  Arab  dress  and  general  civilization." 
The  same  writer  gives  a  very  encouraging  description  of  the  Arabized  population 
I. — Y 


175.  RED  RIVER  HOG  FROM  S.  CENTR.\L  CONGOLAND 


322   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 

fpllows  :  On  the  upper  Lindi  and  Chopo  rivers,  and  on  either 
side  of  the  Congo  from  Stanley  Falls  to  the  Maiko  River  (which 
enters  the  Congo  at  Yamba-Yamba),  even  further  south  along 
the  course  of  the  Congo  up  to  Ponthierville,  is  found  a  very 

interesting  and 
somewhat  mysteri- 
ous people,  the  Ba- 
manga  or  Waman- 
ga.  There  is  only  a 
slight  difference 
between  the  speech 
of  the  Bamancra 
and  the  western- 
most Bakumu,  but 
these  names  can- 
not be  regrarded  as 
mere  alternative 
appellations  for  the 
same  people,  as 
Stapleton  sup- 
posed. The  real 
Bakumu  to  the 
north-east  and  east 
of  the  Bamanga 
are  dwarfish  tribes 
speaking  very  de- 
based Bantu  dia- 
lects, whereas  the 
Bamanga  and  the 
river  Bakumu  are — 
as  the  Rev.  W.  H. 
Stapleton  was  the  first  to  discover — a  tall,  stalwart  race  non- 
Bantu  in  language.    The  Bamanga  are  the  only  example  of  a 

and  of  such  Zanzibar  Arabs  that  remain  in  the  eastern  regions  of  the  Congo  between 
the  Stanley  Falls  and  the  British  and  German  frontiers.  The  chiefs  and  notables  are 
intelligent  and  well  conducted.  All  read  and  write  (in  the  Arabic  character),  and  are 
well  versed  in  the  Koran,  of  which,  as  of  other  Muhammadan  devotional  books, 
there  are  always  copies  in  each  village.  "  I  engaged  several  of  the  Arab  chiefs  I  met 
in  conversation,  and  was  astonished  to  find  that  they  had  a  good  rudimentary  know- 
ledge of  general  geography.  .  .  .  They  were,  in  fact,  in  a  way  a  civilized  people.  In 
all  the  larger  villages  Muhammadan  schools  are  established,  attendance  at  which  is 
compulsory  by  all  the  children  by  order  of  the  chiefs.  .  .  .  The  men  are  all  dressed 
in  the  traditional  Muhammadan  robes  of  spotless  cleanliness  .  .  .  most  devout  and 
rigorous  in  their  observance  of  their  religion.  .  .  .  Their  womenkind  are  neither 
veiled  nor  cloistered,  but  are  all  well  clothed  in  a  simple  robe  of  bright  colours  from 
the  shoulders  to  the  feet,  and  are  treated  with  a  degree  of  respect  and  consideration 
far  ahead  of  that  prevailing  amongst  Africans  generally.  The  largest  Arab  village  of 
all  that  I  came  across  was  that  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Avakubi." 


176.  AN  ARAB  TRADER  IN  NORTH-EAST  CONGOLAND 
(Originally  from  Zanzibar.) 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


32: 


non- Bantu  people  reaching  the  main  course  of  the  Conoo, 
thouoh  the  allied  Bondonoa  of  the  eastern  Mon- 

O  <!-!> 

gala  basin  come  very  near.  It  is  with  these — the 
Ndonoa  or  Bondonoa — that  the  Bamanoa  are 
closest  allied  in  speech.  Other,  but  far  more 
distant  affinities,  lie  in  the  direction  of  Mbuba- 
Momvu,  Maribettu,  and  Mundu.  But  the  Bamanga- 
Ndonga  speech  is  extremely  isolated.  There  are 
indications  in  place  names  that  it  preceded  the 
Bantu  in  Eastern  Equatorial  Africa,  but  the 
Bamano-a  themselves  seem  to  be  recent  invaders 
of  the  north-east  Congo  forest  region,  and  to 
have  pushed  down  through  and  over  Bantu- 
speaking  tribes  till  they  reached  the  main  Congo 
between  Stanley  Falls  and  Ponthierville.  They 
extend  at  present  a  very  short  distance  west  of 
the  ConCTo.  In  common  with  the  Bakumu  and 
Lokele  they  wear  the  "  pelele  "  or  lip-ring,  like 
the  Balese  of  the  Ituri  forests. 

As  already  mentioned,  the  interesting  Bagenya 
people  were  traced  by  Grenfell  to  as  far  north  as 
the  lower  Lindi,  up  to  Balila.^  They  are  the 
river  people  all  along  the  course  of  the  Lualaba- 
Congo,  from  Stanley  Falls  southwards  to  beyond 
Nyangwe,  where  they  are  succeeded  by  the 
Wangobelio  (or  Waiijabilio).  In  origin  and  lan- 
guage they  seem  to  be  allied  to  the  Manyema. 

A  good  deal  of  the  course  of  the  middle  and 
lower  Lomami  is  occupied  by  peoples  whose 
speech  connects  them  with  the  Balolo  group  of 
central  Congoland.  The  Batetela  of  the  upper 
Lomami  are  a  warlike  race  related  to  the  Man- 
yema. Then,  southwards,  we  come  to  the  great 
domain  of  the  Basongo  and  Basonge,  who  appear 
to  belong  linguistically  to  the  same  group  as  the 
Bakuba  :  indeed  the  Basonge  or  "  Zappo-zaps  " 
(as  they  are  nicknamed)  are  almost  identical  with 
the  Bakuba. 

Between  the  Lualaba-Congo  below  its  junction 
with  the  Lilu  or  Leopold  River  and  the  eastern 
frontier  of  the  State,  there  are  collections  of  peoples  speaking 

'  Grenfell  says  they  are  also  known  as  Bagengela  and  adds  this  note  about 
them  (presumably )  :  "  Houses  above  Ponthierville  are  round  huts  with  conical  roofs. 
The  people  wear  their  hair  braided  in  fillets.  They  have  dog-teeth  collars,  and  kauri 
ornaments  on  the  leather  flaps  worn  over  the  posterior." 


177.  A  WOODEN 
WHISTLE  FROM 
THE  MANVEMA 
COUNTRY 


324   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


very  pure  Bantu  languages,  like  the  Ba/ega,  Balengola,  Bate7nbo, 
and  Bavinza.  These  are  connected  linguistically  with  the  Ban- 
konjo  and  Awa-rundi  of  the  Uganda  and  German- East- Africa 
frontiers.  They  seem  to  be  a  recent  invasion  from  these  regions. 
Otherwise,  the  "pure  Bantu"  migration  towards  Congoland  from 
the  original  Bantu  home  on  the  White  Nile  and  the  Victoria 
Nyanza  seems  to  have  skirted  the  eastern  shore  of  Tanganyika, 
possibly  crossing  it  at  certain  points  in  canoes,  and  to  have  first 
attacked  the  Congo  basin  from  the  south-east. 

The  Manyenia,  still  occupying  the  region  north  of  the 
Luama  River,  have  extended  under  the  name  of  Bakusu  across 
to  the  Lomami,  and  seem  to  be  connected  linguistically  with 


178.  EUTROPIUS  GRENFELLI,  A  FISH  OF  THE  UPPER  CONGO 
DISCOVERED  BY  GRENFELL 
(This  is  a  much  smaller  form  than  the  extraordinary  E.  Intice/is.) 


the  Batetela,  the  Bagenya,  and  even  the  Basoko  and  Lokele 
tribes  of  the  Aruwimi-Cono;o.  The  BasJiha  and  Kabwari 
people  of  north-west  Tanganyika  speak  a  somewhat  distinctive 
form  of  Bantu  language,  related  equally  to  the  Uganda  family 
and  to  the  Luba  group.  The  Bariia,  Tiisango,  Batnbuli, 
Batabwa^  and  Batembo  of  the  south-west  coast  of  Tanganyika 
and  the  regions  between  that  lake  and  the  upper  Lomami  are 
connected,  linguistically  at  any  rate,  with  the  Luba  congeries  of 
people.  So  also  are  the  Bakundu  and  Balomotwa  of  S.W. 
Mweru,  though  physically  these  two  last  tribes  are  said  to 
suggest  the  incorporation  of  an  old  Bushman  strain.  The 
Basanga  of  Katanga  ;  the  Bakzvcsi,  Baliibende,  and  Basaniba 


'The  leading  language  of  this  region,  Kitabwa,  has  been  profoundly  studied  by 
Dr.  Auguste  Van  Acker. 


THE  RIVER  CONGO 


325 


of  the  mountainous  regions  of  the  Lubudi-Lualaba  tableland 
also  belong  to  the  Luba  group.  The  Baraniba,  Kaponda,  and 
Balala  of  the  south-eastern  projection  of  the  Congo  basin  are 
related  in  language  to  the  Ba-ila  (Mashukulumbwe)  of  Northern 
Zambezia,  and  throuoh  them  with  the  far- reach i no-  Tonoa- 
Subiya  group  of  Central  and  South-Western  Zambezia. 
Finally,  to  complete  the  enumeration  of  the  leading  tribes  along 
the  whole  course  of  the  Congo  may  be  mentioned  the  Ba-hemba 
(Ba-emba,  Aw'emba)  between  the  south-west  extremity  of 
Tanganyika  (Itawa)  and  the  Chambezi ;  A-lunda  of  Eastern 
Mweru,  the  VVa-kisinga  of  N.  Bangweulu,  the  warlike  Ba-husi 
or  Wa-usi  of  the  upper  Luapula,  the  Aiva-bisa  of  the  lower 
Chambezi,  and  the  Awa-ivhva,  Awa-nyannvanga,  A-ma7nbzve, 
and  A-lungii  of  the  Nyasa-Tanganyika  plateau  and  the  head- 
waters of  the  Chambezi. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES 

IN  the  autumn  of  1902  Grenfell  applied  himself  systemati- 
cally to  the  exploration  of  the  Aruwimi  River.' 
The  primary  condition  of  Robert  Arthington's  dona- 
tion had  been  that  the  Baptist  Mission  Society  should  link  up 
with  some  other  kindred  missionary  society  advancing  from  the 
east,  so  that  there  might  be  a  continuous  chain  of  mission 
stations  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Indian  Ocean  founded  and 
maintained  on  analogous  principles.  It  was  Grenfell's  desire  to 
fulfil  this  idea  by  establishing  three  or  four  mission  stations 
along  the  Aruwimi-Ituri  until  he  was  within  easy  reach  of  the 
westernmost  post  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  in  the 
province  of  Toro  (Uganda)." 

As  regards  the  exploration  of  the  Aruwimi,  he  never  of 
course  met  with  the  sliphtest  obstacle  from  the  Belgian 
authorities,  but  he  was  refused  permission  to  acquire  sites  for 
mission  stations  east  of  the  northernmost  Congo.  It  is  scarcely 
necessary  to  point  out  that  in  maintaining  this  refusal  at 
Brussels  the  supreme  Government  of  the  Congo  State  com- 
mitted a  breach  of  the  Act  of  Berlin. 

By  November  1902  Grenfell  had  travelled  eastwards  as  far 
as  Mawambi  on  the  Aruwimi,  that  is  to  say,  to  within  eighty 
miles  of  the  most  western  outpost  of  the  Uganda  Protectorate. 

•  A  reference  has  already  been  made  in  this  book  to  the  large  bequest  made  to 
the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  by  Robert  Arthington,  the  philanthropist  of  Leeds. 
Mr.  Arthington,  it  will  be  remembered,  had  practically  started  the  whole  Congo 
Mission  of  this  Society  in  1877,  although  many  other  people  subscribed  to  its  funds 
after  he  had  furnished  the  means  for  its  commencement. 

It  was  however  laid  down  in  Mr.  Arthington's  will  that  his  bequest  should  only 
be  applied  to  new  work,  to  the  founding  ot  new  stations,  the  undertaking  of  new 
explorations  and  new  extensions  from  existing  centres  of  work.  The  Ijequest  to  the 
London  Missionary  .Society  is  governed  b\-  the  same  conditions. 

'■^  An  alternative  plan  was  to  advance  up  the  Lualaba-Congo  to  British  Central 
Africa  and  then  join  hands  with  the  London  Missionary  Society.  For  this  reason 
Grenfell  explored  the  great  river  as  far  as  the  Hinde  Rapids  in  1903  (?and  1905),  as 
related  in  the  previous  chapter. 

326 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES 


3^7 


Here  he  stopped.  A  portion  of  his  experiences  are  related 
characteristically  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  A.  H.  Baynes,  dated  from 
Yaleniba,  November  15th  1902  : — 

"I  returned  to  Yalemba  yesterday  (November  14th  1902),  having 
succeeded  in  reaching  Mawambi  on  the  last  day  of  October.  Mawambi 
figures  on  some  maps  as  Kilonga-Conga's,  and  is  about  eighty  miles 
west  of  the  British  frontier,  and  a  few  miles  more  from  the  newest 
Church  Missionary  Society's  outposts  in  Toro.  As  the  only  natives  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Mawambi  are  Wambote  (the  dwarfs),  whom  the 
C.M.S.  very  distinctly  regard  as  coming  within  the  range  of  their 
future  operations,  I  count  myself  as  having  reached  the  C.M.S.  sphere, 
and  as  liaving  passed  beyond  my  range  as  a  pioneer  of  the  Baptist 
Missionary  Society.  Mawambi,  as  in  1887  when  H.  M.  Stanley  visited 
it,  is  a  considerable  settlement  of  Arabized  Africans  ;  but  from  the 


179.    THE  POST  OF  .A.VAK.UBI,  LOOKING  DOWN  THE  ARUWIMI  RIVER,  ACROSSBC.itJ 
THE  ISLAND  IN  FRONT  OF  THE  STATION 
(It  was  near  Avakubi  that  Grenfell  wished  to  found  a  station.) 


position  of  an  independent  power  in  this  country,  as  it  was  in  the  time 
of  the  Emin  Pasha  Relief  Expedition,  it  has  been  subjected  to  and  is 
administered  by  a  military  post.  The  Arabs  and  their  dependents 
number  two  to  three  thousand,  and  their  vocation  as  raiders  and  slave- 
dealers  having  gone  (they  have  practically  depopulated  the  country  of  all 
the  people  except  the  dwarfs),  they  have  become  auxiliaries  of  the 
State,  and  subsist  on  their  earnings  as  carriers  of  the  loads  required  by 
the  Government  at  the  south  end  of  Lake  Albert  and  the  north  end 
of  Lake  Albert  Edward  at  distances  of  twelve  and  ten  marches 
respectively." 

[Here  follow  passages  complaining  of  the  refusal  of  the 
Belgian  authorities  to  allow  the  Baptists  to  acquire  a 
site  for  a  mission  station  on  the  Aruwimi.  Then  succeeds  a 
report  on  the  spread  of  education  among  the  mission  boys  or 
students,  some  of  them  natives  of  the  Aruwimi  district,  who 
had  since  gone  out  as  teachers  among  their  fellow-country- 


328   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


"Bungudi  Daniele  and  Disasi  Libondu  worked  well,  and  created 
quite  a  favourable  impression  among  the  natives.  Alphabet  sheets  were 
at  first  a  mystery,  and  the  magic-lantern  slides  a  positive  source  of 
terror ;  but  after  a  while  the  letters  were  understood  as  the  keys  to  the 
white  man's  stores  of  knowledge  locked  up  in  books,  and  the  Scripture 
History  pictures  on  the  lantern  sheet  became  the  texts  for  many  an 
attentively  regarded  lesson.  ...  I  found  as  I  came  down  the  Aruwimi 
that  the  good  impression  created  by  the  Peace  amongst  the  people  had 
made  its  way  six  or  seven  days'  journey  upstream.  .  .  . 

"  Baluti  and  his  two  companions  .  .  .  have  been  able  to  tell  the 
people  something  of  our  message,  and  they  now  understand  very 
clearly  what  our  object  is.  The  children,  however,  as  I  find  them 
everywhere,  are  very  anxious  to  learn  to  read.  '  The  Arab  reads,  the 
white  man  reads,'  and  they  feel  they  too  must  learn  to  read  if  they  are 
to  escape  the  disadvantages  of  their  present  position.  Education  is 
thus  at  quite  a  premium  already,  and  the  sooner  we  can  put  the  Gospels 
in  their  hands  as  class  books,  the  sooner  we  shall  have  commenced 
sowing  the  seed  in  the  same  m  inner  that  has  elsewhere  been  so  widely 
blest. 

"  With  a  view  to  getting  to  know  something  of  the  languages 
spoken  in  the  country  through  which  I  have  passed,  I  have  brought  down 
with  me  twelve  youths  of  the  three  principal  tribes,  some  of  wjiom  in 
years  to  come  we  may  hope  will  be  messengers  or  will  help  others  to  be 
messengers  to  their  people.  On  the  understanding  that  they  were  to 
work  half  the  day  and  go  to  school  the  other  half,  it  seemed  as  though 
I  could  have  got  any  number  I  liked,  and  many  were  cruelly  disappointed 
because  I  could  not  take  them — some  of  them  absolutely  cried  !  As 
soon  as  ever  they  have  learnt  one  or  other  of  our  school  languages  I 
trust  we  may  be  able  to  put  them  under  the  care  of  a  brother  mission- 
ary who  with  linguistic  instincts  will  be  able  to  gather  valuable  vocabu- 
laries, hints  as  to  the  construction  of  the  languages.^  They  have  already 
commenced  their  schools  under  two  teachers  who  have  arrived  at  Bolobo 
with  us.  One  of  these  under  my  wife's  guidance  gives  lessons  to  the 
girls  on  board  the  Peace  and  the  Bristol,  and  the  other  teaches  these 
twelve  boys  to  whom  I  have  referred,  and  a  few  other  boys. 

"You  may  be  interested  to  hear  that  I  joined  the  railway  track  of 
the  Great  Lakes  Railway,  already  pegged  out  by  the  engineers  between 
the  Congo  and  the  Nile,  at  a  point  about  120  miles  west  of  the  Ikitish 
frontier,  and  followed  it  for  40  miles  till  I  turned  back  at  Mawambi. 
This  suggests  many  thoughts,  and  opens  out  wide  possibilities  for  the 
future  ;  but  however  wide  these  possibilities  may  become  in  the  future, 
we  have,  spread  out  before  us,  wide  areas  the  circumstances  of  which 

'  This  work  was  undertaken  by  the  late  Rev.  W.  H.  Stapleton  (though  far  from  com- 
pleted at  the  time  of  his  death),  with  results  that  are  mentioned  in  this  book.  Grenfell 
seems,  in  his  notes,  to  indicate  that  along  the  lower  Aruwimi,  west  and  north  of  the 
Basoko  dialects,  the  leading  language  is  "Ndaka"  or  '•  Mondaka,"  spoken  between 
the  Aruwimi  and  Lulu  by  the  following  tribes  :  Bemberi,  Bafwakiba,  Bavwatende, 
Babeki,  Babesoa,  Bavwalola,  Babutambili,  Ba\  vvakoa,  Ba\  \vasei,  Awamazoa,  Basiri, 
Babunda,  Bameni,  and  Bavika.  Surveying  the  country  from  Mawambi  he  notes  : 
"VVanandi  people  to  the  south"  (compare  this  with  my  own  notes  on  Banande  in  the 
Uganda  Pro/ecioraie),  "  Balese  to  the  north  of  Mawambi,  Walende  (?  Lendu)  and 
Bambisa  to  the  north  and  east." 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES 


331 


will  remain  unmodified,  fields  for  our  energies  towards  which  we  have 
long  been  looking.  .  .  ."'^ 

In  a  letter  to  a  correspondent  at  the  end  of  October  1902 
Grenfell  writes  : — 

"  A  week  ago  we  were  camped  near  the  Nepoko  River,  and  received 
a  visit  from  some  dwarfs,  some  of  the  westernmost  wanderers  of  this 
more  or  less  nomad  tribe.  They  are  queer  little  folk,  and  live  very 
largely  by  their  wits,  as  well  as  by  their  nimbleness  as  hunters.  Though 
so  much  inferior  in  the  matter  of  strength  to  the  settled  natives  of  the 
country,  they  are  much  feared,  because  of  their  cunning,  and  for  the 
unfailing  revenge  which  they  take  for  every  injury  they  sustain.  'One  of 
the  groups  was  evi- 
dently a  sort  of  min- 
strel band,  for  after 
they  had  gone  through 
their  music  and  danc- 
ing for  our  amusement 
(and  their  profit)  we 
heard  them  later  on 
giving  the  same  per- 
formance in  two  other 
villages  on  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  river. 
The  music  was  only 
one  degree  less  re- 
markable than  the 
dancing.  One  of  the 
refrains  was  strikingly 
pretty,  consisting  of  a 
sort  of  round,  produc- 
ing an  effect  like  that 
of  beautifully  toned  181.  a  chapel  built  by  native  mission  boys 
bells  in  the  distance.  at  bolobo 

The  second  effort  was  much  less  elaborate,  consisting  of  two  chords 
only,  and  must  have  been  copied  from  a  bird's  song  in  the  woods.  It 

'  With  regard  to  the  attempts  of  Grenfell  and  Stapleton  (and  other  Baptist 
missionaries)  to  teach  natives  to  give  direct  instruction  to  their  fellow-countrymen. 
Lord  Mountmorres,  in  his  Report  on  the  "Congo  Independent  State"  (Williams  and 
Norgate,  1906),  writes  an  interesting  passage.  He  describes  how  amongst  the  timid 
savages  between  the  Lomami  and  the  Lualaba-Congo,  "a  small  boy,  a  native  pupil 
of  Mr.  Stapleton's  at  Yakusu,  has  at  last  accomplished  that  which  Government 
officials  and  white  missionaries  alike  have  been  powerless  to  achieve.  He  has 
awakened  in  these  people  (the  natives  of  the  left  bank  of  the  Congo  near  Stanleyville) 
a  desire  to  improve  themselves  ;  and  daily  I  saw  the  boy  inside  one  of  the  inclosures 
sitting  surrounded  by  its  entire  inhabitants,  while  he  taught  them,  children  and 
adults  alike,  to  read  and  reckon  from  first  primers.  It  would  be  difficult  to  arrive  at 
the  exact  age  of  this  little  reformer,  but  I  do  not  think  he  could  have  been  more  than 
eight  years  old.  It  ought  to  be  mentioned  that  it  is  no  solitary  instance  of  this  kind 
of  thing,  that  I  found  another  small  boy,  again  a  pupil  of  Mr.  Stapleton's  Baptist 
mission,  carrying  knowledge  and  enlightenment  in  the  same  way  to  another  village  at 
which  I  touched  close  to  the  mouth  of  the  Lomami." 


332   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


was  decidedly  effective.  The  third  I  hardly  know  how  to  describe — 
it  was  a  medley  of  hand-clacking  (not  clapping)  and  vocal  tones  that 
resembled  nothing  else  so  much  as  a  troop  of  tropical  frogs,  and  when 
I  tell  you  that  new-comers  have  mistaken  the  croaking  of  our  frogs 
for  the  chorus  of  a  covey  of  ducks  it  will  help  you  to  realize  that  the 

Congo  frog  is  an  as- 
tonishing advance  on 
the  home-bred  variety 
as  a  croaker ! 

"  The  dancing  was 
done  by  the  head-man 
of  the  party  (they  num- 
bered about  a  dozen, 
including  two  babies) ; 
and  it  is  even  more 
difficult  to  describe 
than  the  music.  A  few 
preliminary  paces  hav- 
ing been  made,  Azim- 
bambuli,  the  dancer, 
received  from  the 
hands  of  one  of  the 
onlookers  a  burning 
stick,  just  taken  from 
the  fire.  It  was  about 
fifteen  inches  long,  and 
was  more  than  three 
inches  thick.  The 
blazing  end  was  nearly 
half  the  total  length, 
and  was  thoroughly 
alight,  the  extreme  end 
being  reduced  to  a 
point  in  the  fire  —  it 
w  as  a  live  pyramid  of 
fire.  I  expected  when 
I  saw  it  placed  in  his 
hands  that  he  would 
continue  to  dance  till 
its  condition  was  con- 
siderably modified ;  but 
within  twenty  seconds, 
and  after  looking  at  it  as  he  grasped  it  in  both  hands  in  a  most 
quizzical  manner  from  various  points  of  view,  and  vigorously  blow- 
ing upon  a  certain  portion  of  it,  he  suddenly  applied  his  capacious 
tongue  to  a  surface  which  an  instant  before  had  been  all  aglow,  and 
we  perceived  a  very  considerable  dark  patch  as  the  result.  After 
one  or  two  sundry  jumps  and  whirlings  of  the  brand  in  the  air,  he 
made  a  snap  at  the  point  of  it  with  his  teeth,  and  broke  it  off,  allowing 
it  to  fall  still  glowing  on  the  floor.  Some  grimaces,  rubbing  of  the 
stomach  for  the  sake  of  effect,  was  followed  by  a  few  more  gyrations, 


182. 


TWO  BAMBUTU  PYGMIES,  AZ 1 M  DAM  1  ;ULI  AND 
ABUMBUKU 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES 


333 


more  applications  of  the  capacious  tongue  and  teeth,  more  blowing, 
whirling  of  the  stick,  and  dancing,  and  in  less  than  three  minutes  the 
firebrand  was  reduced  to  a  dead,  black  stump. 

"  Of  course  such  an  exhibition  greatly  impressed  the  onlooker,  but 
I  have  no  doubt  that  cunning  Azimbambuli  knew  just  the  right 
moments  and  place  for  applying  tongue  and  teeth  without  much 
personal  discomfort.  This  much  is  certain,  that  he  had  barely  finished 
with  stick  No.  i  when  No.  2  was  handed  to  him,  and  I  left  him  repeat- 
ing the  performance.  .  .  .  The  dancer  measured  just  four  feet  six  and  a 
half  inches,  and  his  companion  was  half  an  inch  less.  One  of  the 
women  was  a  little  under  four  feet.  They  are  evidently  in  a  very 
degraded  condition,  but  I  am  told  that  Azimbambuli's  poor  old  blind 
mother  is  carried  from  camp  to  camp  in  all  their  wanderings,  so  they 
thus  give  pleasing  evidence  of  belonging  to  the  family  after  all !  You 
know,  I  think,  that  the  C.M.S.  has  already  planned  for  a  mission  among 
these  interesting  little  folk,  and  I  am  therefore  getting  to  the  limits  of  our 
future  work,  if  I  have  not  already  reached  them.  If,  however,  the  rail- 
way between  the  Congo  and  the  Nile  should  be  completed,  it  may  become 
easier  to  reach  the  Dwarf  country  from  the  west  than  from  the  east.  .  .  ." 

It  is  only  fair  to  say  that  in  1902  Grenfell  found  the  adminis- 
tration of  native  affairs  in  the  Aruwimi  district  greatly  improved 
as  compared  to  that  of  1894  (for  example):  in  which  year  he 
visited  the  lower  Aruwimi  and  noted  grave  abuses  of  authority, 
chiefly  by  persons  representing  recently  founded  concessionnaire 
companies.  He  had  been  given  all  possible  facilities  for  visiting 
this  and  other  regions  by  Major  Malfeyt,  the  representative  of 
the  Congo  Independent  State  (Inspecteur  d'Etat)  at  Stanleyville. 
On  his  return  from  his  1902  journey  he  addressed  a  letter  to 
Major  Malfeyt,  of  which  some  extracts  may  be  interesting  : — 

"  Yambuya,  Aruwimi, 

"  \  2th  November  IQ02. 

"  M.  LE  Major  Malfeyt, 

"  Inspecteur  d'Etat,  etc.  etc.,  Stanleyville. 
Monsieur  : 

"  I  have  just  returned  to  this  place  after  a  journey  to  Mawambi. 
I  take  this  the  first  opportunity  of  thanking  you  for  the  facilities 
accorded  to  me  by  your  kind  letters  of  introduction.  You  will  be  glad 
to  know  that  I  have  made  the  journey  under  the  best  possible  condi- 
tions, and  that  the  transport  system,  which  has  been  organized,  was 
working  with  such  smoothness  that  I  found  food  and  transport  and  a 
good  rest-house  awaiting  me  at  the  end  of  every  stage.  These  matters 
in  no  instance  caused  me  the  least  anxiety.  By  the  officers  and  agents 
of  the  State  I  have  been  everywhere  welcomed  in  the  most  cordial 
manner,  and  especially  by  M.  le  Capitaine  (name  illegible)  and  Lieu- 
tenant SifTert,  to  whom  when  the  occasion  serves  I  hope  you  will  make 
known  my  high  appreciation  of  the  kindness  and  consideration  they 
manifested  on  my  behalf,  as  well  as  my  grateful  thanks  for  the  help 
they  rendered  in  the  carrying  out  of  my  plans. 


334   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


"  It  was  a  source  of  sincere  pleasure  to  me  to  see  the  colonies  of  the 
time-expired  men^  at  Banalya.  Their  neat,  well-kept  houses  and  the 
air  of  contentment  that  reigned  were  most  inspiring.  To  find  these 
communities  so  advanced  on  the  high  road  to  civilization  in  this  far- 
away place,  right  in  the  centre  of  the  continent,  is  a  most  important  and 
encouraging  fact.  Another  very  gratifying  fact  I  note  is  the  evidence 
which  crossed  my  path  as  to  the  regime  of  the  civil  law  having  been 
extended  as  far  as  the  Nepoko,  and  this  in  a  country  which  still  so 
plainly  bears  the  marks  of  the  Arab  domination  a  few  years  ago.  That 
the  upper  Ituri  does  not  yet  enjoy  the  same  ad\-antages  is  easily  under- 
stood by  those  who  know  the  circumstances  ;  but  the  railway  and  the 


183. 


THE  VILLAGE  OF  THE  BANALYA  COLONY  OF  TIME-EXPIRED  SOLDIERS 
OF  THE  CONGO  STATE 


developments  which  are  being  undertaken  will  soon  result,  I  doubt  not, 
in  the  passing  away  of  the  old  order  of  things,  and  in  this  part  of  the 
province  also  being  brought  within  the  range  of  the  Civil  Code  and  its 
attendant  benefits.  .  .  . 

"  My  journey  has  been  a  most  instructive  and  a  very  pleasant  one — 
the  only  sad  feature  of  it  being  the  district  east  of  the  Lenda  River, 
where  the  complete  absence  of  population  and  the  abundant  clearings 
told  most  plainly  of  the  devastation  resulting  from  the  old-time  Arab 
domination,  and  called  up  a  picture  of  the  sorrows  it  must  have  inflicted 
over  this  wide  district.  .  .  . 

"  With  very  sincere  respect, 

"  Faithfully  yours, 

"George  Grenfell." 

'  This  is  interesting  testimony,  as  several  years  previously  the  Congo  State 
system  of  establishing  these  soldier  colonies  was  severely  and — as  it  turns  out — un- 
fairly criticized.  Like  Grenfell,  Lord  Mountmorres  and  Mrs.  William  Forfeitt,  B.NLS., 
have  reported  favourably  on  the  villages  formed  by  the  retired  soldiers  of  the  State, 
"on  their  spotless  cleanliness,  the  extent  and  excellence  of  their  plantations."  (H.  H.  J.) 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES 


335 


I  will  now  attempt  to  give  a  description  of  the  Northern 
tributaries  of  the  Congo  from  notes  collected  by  Grenfell, 
William  Forfeitt,  Torday,  and  various  Belgian  authorities. 

The  Aruwimi,  under  the  names  of  Shari,  Abumbi,  Ituri, 
Luwere,  Biyere,  Mbinga,  rises  with  many  contributory  streams 
on  the  southern  slopes  of  a  knot  of  mountains  named  after 
Speke,  Emin,  Schweinfurth,  and  Junker,  about  thirty  miles  west 
of  the  north  end  of  x^lbert  Nyanza.  Near  Mawambi  it  receives 
the  Ibina,  which  comes  from  the  heights  above  the  Semliki 
valley  (behind  Fort  Mbeni) ;  and  a  little  lower  down,  the  Epulu 
(  I  h  u  r  u  ) ,  which 
flows  through  the 
Momvu  country. 
At  Bomili  below 
the  important  sta- 
tion of  Avakubi  is 
the  confluence  of 
the  Aruwimi  and 
the  Nepoko  (a 
river  first  dis- 
coverecl  by  Dr. 
Junker,  which  is 
the  southern  boun- 
dary of  the  Man- 
bet  tu       country).         '^4-    aruwimi  river  above  the  LO\VESTij;RAPIDS 

The   only  other 

tributary  of  importance  is  the  Lulu,  which  enters  the  Aruwimi 
a  few  miles  from  its  confluence  with  the  Congo. 

The  Lulu  is  of  political  importance,  because  it  is  navigable 
for  canoes  for  a  considerable  distance  into  the  dense  forest. 
The  Aruwimi  is  navigable  for  steamers  as  far  upstream  as 
Yambuya  (about  sixty  miles),  beyond  which  falls  occur  at  in- 
tervals along  the  whole  course  of  this  mighty  stream.  There 
are  stretches  of  river  between  the  falls  and  rapids  which  are 
navigated  by  canoes,  but  the  Aruwimi  above  Avakubi  is  a 
mountain  torrent  in  many  places. 

In  1894  Grenfell  noted  that  July,  August,  and  September 
were  the  seasons  of  heaviest  rain  along  the  lower  Aruwimi, 
but  that  the  great  rise  of  the  river  did  not  occur  till  October, 
There  is  a  dry  season  of  only  three  months  at  Yambuya — 
mid  -  December  to  mid  -  March.  The  current  of  the  lower 
Aruwimi  often  varies  on  either  side  from  a  velocity  of  1 50  feet 
per  minute  to  275  feet.    The  colour  of  the  water  is  a  clear 


336   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


sepia-brovvn.  The  river  is  lowest  in  February  and  December 
and  highest  in  April  and  October. 

Between  the  Aruwimi-Ituri  and  the  Epulu  (east  of  the 
hill  gorge  of  Avakubi)  is  a  broad,  pear-shaped  plain  that 
was  once  possibly  an  upland  lake  of  considerable  size,  the 
outlet  of  which  sawed  its  way  through  the  deep  gorge  in 
the  hills  at  whose  western  end — facing  the  Nepoko  plain — 
Avakubi  is  situated.  Beyond  its  junction  with  the  Nepoko 
the  Aruwimi  has  entered  the  undulating  plains  and  swampy 
forest  of  Central  Congoland.  The  mountain  region  in  which 
the  Aruwnni,  Nepoko,  Bomokandi,  and  Wele-Kibali  are  born 
extends  a  long  tapering  finger  south-westwards  to  the  main 


185.   PAXCd  KAI  IDS  OF  ARUWIMI 


Congo  at  Stanley  Falls.  It  reaches  its  highest  altitudes,  how- 
ever, along  the  edge  of  the  Albert  Edward-Semliki-Albert 
Nyanza  rift  valley  and  near  the  sources  of  the  western  Ituri 
(Kilo  Mountains,  where  the  gold  is  found),  and  perhaps  south 
of  the  upper  Lindi  River.  Near  Lake  Albert  and  to  the 
west  of  the  upper  Semliki  this  splendid  mountain  country 
attains  altitudes  of  from  six  to  eight  thousand  feet.  Elsewhere 
the  heights  above  sea-level  scarcely  exceed  five  thousand 
feet,  and  up  to  this  limit  the  country  (except  for  human  inter- 
vention) is  covered  with  dense  forest.  Owing  probably  to  this 
excessive  grrowth  of  veo-etation  under  a  rainfall  which  must  be 
not  far  short  of  one  hundred  inches  per  annum,  the  basin  of 
the  Aruwimi,  above  Banalya,  is  very  unhealthy  for  Europeans 
and  foreign  negroes.  Black-water  fever  is  prevalent,  together 
with  severe  anaemia.     Health,  however,  is  quickly  restored  by 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES 


337 


transference  to  the  grassy  uplands  overlooking  Lake  Albert  or 
the  Semliki  valley,  where  the  forest  is  abated  above  six  thou- 
sand feet  and  temperate,  drier  conditions  prevail. 

The  Rubi  River/  which  enters  the  lake-like  Congo  near 
Bumba,  where  the  mighty  stream  hitherto  coming  from  the 
south  begins  to  turn  definitely  westwards,  was  one  of  Grenfell's 
earliest  discoveries  in  December  1884.  His  description  of  its 
lower  course  has  been  given  on  page  123.  He  adds  at  a  later 
date  that  the  rainy  season  at  the  mouth  of  the  Loika  (as  he 
prefers  to  call  the  Rubi)  is  heaviest  in  the  months  of  February, 
March,  October,  November,  and  December,  and  that  the  river- 
level  is  highest  in  October  and  lowest  in  January. 

The  main  stream  of  the  Rubi  rises  close  to  the  Aruwimi 
and  the  affluents  of  the  Wele,  in  the  hilly  country  of  Mabode. 
In  the  basin  of  the  upper  Rubi  and  of  its  affluent  the  Likati 
the  rocks  seem  to  be  slate.  The  natives  grind  these  into  a  grey 
powder  with  which  to  colour  their  skins.  The  Mongala'"  River 
was  one  of  the  very  few  Congo  affluents  not  explored  by 
Grenfell,  who  only  visited  its  delta.  The  upper  Mongala 
is  made  up  of  four  important  streams:  the  Dua  ("Black" 
water),  the  Ebola  ("White"  water),  the  Likema-Bwila,  and 
the  Ibanza  River.  All  of  them  rise  quite  close  to  the  Wele- 
Mubangi  from  the  low  range  of  hills  (about  five  hundred  feet 
above  local  levels — some  seventeen  hundred  to  two  thousand 
feet  in  total  altitude)  which  borders  the  middle  course  of  this 
river. 

The  Mongala  is  only  navigable  by  steamers  for  about  fifty 
miles  above  the  Congo  confluence.  Navigation  is  then  stopped 
by  the  Likini-Businga  rapids  and  falls.  Beyond  these  cataracts, 
however,  vessels  of  shallow  draught  can  penetrate  as  far  up  the 
main  stream  (Ebola)  as  Congo,  which  is  barely  sixty  miles  from 
the  middle  Mubangi.  The  Dua  River  can  be  navirated  in 
canoes  for  some  hundred  and  twenty  miles  upstream  to  the 
east.  But  for  the  narrow  neck  of  highland  behind  Bopoto,  this 
river  might  almost  unite  near  its  source  with  the  Chimbi 
affluent  of  the  Rubi.     The  slug-crish  Motima  River,  which 

...  . 

enters  the  Mongala  just  below  the  Likini  rapids,  flows  nearly 

'  This  river  is  also  known  as  the  Lubi,  Loika,  and  Itimbiri.  Grenfell  gives  the 
altitude  above  sea-level  of  the  Rubi  confluence  with  the  Congo  as  1,230  feet,  and  the 
volume  of  the  Rubi  at  its  mouth  as  30,000  cubic  feet  per  second. 

^  The  Mongala  as  far  as  the  Mungwadi  rapids  was  explored  in  1887  by  Captain 
Baert  (a  Belgian)  and  Mr.  J.  R.  Werner  (an  Englishman).  The  last-named  explorer 
was  the  brother  of  Miss  A.  Werner,  the  well-known  writer  on  African  languages  and 
folklore.  In  its  upper  waters  the  main  Mongala  River  is  known  as  the  Ebola,  a  term 
said  to  mean  "White."  "Mongala"  is  a  name  of  uncertain  etymology  and  local  use, 
perhaps  connected  with  the  equally  incorrect  "  Bangala." 

I. — z 


338   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


parallel  with  the  main  Congo,  and  perhaps  at  flood-time  turns  the 
Bwela  country'  into  a  huge  island.  Then,  also,  during  the  flood 
season,  which  here  would  be  the  months  of  October  and  May, 
the  Mongala  in  its  lower  course  almost  unites  with  the  eastern 
branches  of  the  Ngiri  River,  and  thus  with  the  lower  Mubangi. 

The  actual  frontage  of  the  Congo  along  the  Bangala  shore 
(Nouvelle  Anvers  to  Mobeka)  is  about  one  to  two  hundred  feet 
above  flood-mark,  but  behind  this  strip  of  dry  land  there  are 
lakelets,  swampy  forests,  marshes,  and  narrow  meandering 
streams — another  "vegetable  Venice,"  in  fact:  redeemed  from 


l&b.    A  VILLAGE  OF  THE  EWELA  COUNTRV  BEHIND  KOPOTO 


dismality  by  the  splendid  forest  which  for  three  or  four  months 
out  of  the  twelve  rises  directlv  from  the  stagnant  water. 

This  scenery  is  well  described  by  Father  Heymans  in  an 
account  of  a  visit  to  the  Ndobo  country,  three  days'  river  jour- 
ney from  Nouvelle  Anvers  by  the  Congo  and  by  a  narrow 
stream  called  the  Moeko  ("  no  more  than  a  rivulet,  which 
trunks  of  trees,  torn  up  by  hurricanes,  often  render  unnavi- 
gable  ")  : — ■ 

"  There  is  no  undergrowth  [in  this  swampy  forest  region  of 
Ndobo],  but  huge  venerable  trees  stand  erect  like  so  many  columns, 

'  On  the  Congo  coast  of  which  are  the  flourishing  Baptist  mission  stations  of 
Bopoto,  etc. 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES 


339 


whose  sturdy  stem  is  almost  hidden  by  the  twining  of  climbing 
parasites,  among  which  shine  in  many-coloured  clusters,  innumerable 
orchids. 

"All  these  forest  giants  stand  in  the  water.  Not  a  spot  where  the 
foot  can  be  put  to  the  ground.  Our  boat  glides  under  the  leafy  vault, 
sparing  us  the  meanderings  of  the  river  and  the  impetuosity  of  the 
current.  This  navigation  over  flood  waters  does  not  any  the  less  remain 
unpleasant.  Still  it  constitutes  the  only  means  of  reaching  Ndobo. 
When  the  waters  are  low,  as  I  have  said  already,  communication  is  very 
difficult,  if  not  impossible.  This  is  why  these  people,  although  they 
supply  the  State  with  provisions,  live  isolated,  devoted  only  to  their  own 


187.  A    VILLAGE  OF  THE  INTERIOR  BEHIND  BOPOTO 
(Note  ant-hill  in  the  background  with  man  standing  on  top.) 


instincts,  and  remain  like  their  ancestors,  slave  dealers  and  cannibals. 
Hitherto  only  two  whites  have  crossed  the  central  market  of  this  village. 
At  five  or  six  leagues  from  this  centre  the  first  plantations  appear. 
They  are  composed  of  palm  trees,  bananas,  and  manioc,  as  well  as  a 
species  of  spinach.  The  country  being  completely  submerged  when 
the  high  waters  supervene,  these  plantations  need  for  their  creation  and 
preservation  an  enormous  and  continual  labour.  They  form  artificial 
islets  whose  superficial  area  may  reach  to  as  much  as  twenty  acres. 
The  dyke  which  protects  them  against  the  floods  is  made  of  small  sticks 
bound  close  together,  three  feet  high,  fixed  upright  in  the  slimy  ground, 
the  long  line  of  which  is  supported  by  the  trunks  of  the  banana  trees. 
This  dyke,  in  spite  of  careful  labour,  would  not  suffice  to  preserve  the 
islets  from  inundation,  if  when  the  waters  sank,  search  were  not  made 
in  the  beds  of  the  dried  streams  for  a  supply  of  mud  which  is  placed 


340  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


above  the  dyke  in  order  to  raise  the  soil  of  the  islet  and  supply  a  rich 
manure  for  the  plantations. 

"  Every  freeman  possesses  an  islet  in  the  midst  of  which  stand  his 
sheds  and  house.  This  last  is  not  wanting  in  outward  appearance.  The 
base,  which  is  quadrangular  and  formed  of  great  stakes  placed  side  by 
side,  rises  almost  three  feet  from  the  ground,  and  supports  a  high  roof 
of  two  sides  and  covered  with  palm  leaves.  The  door  is  about  two  feet 
four  inches  high,  so  that  anyone  who  seeks  to  enter  is  obliged  to  go 
down  on  his  hands  and  knees.  Inside  is  a  profound  darkness ;  mats 
hang  on  the  upright  walls  and  along  the  roof  in  order  to  ensure  the 
inhabitants  against  rain  ;  with  the  same  object  the  ground  is  covered 
with  round  logs  laid  side  by  side. 

"  On  the  islets  in  question  the  most  common  produce-bearing  tree 
is  the  oil  palm  {Elais),  which  gives  a  double  revenue  :  half  of  these  trees 
being  kept  to  produce  palm  wine,  the  other  half  providing  the  nuts  from 
which  is  extracted  palm  oil.  The  wine  is  scarcely  ever  used  for  com- 
mercial purposes,  it  is  consumed  on  the  spot ;  but  as  for  the  oil,  which 
is  so  celebrated,  all  the  dwellers  by  the  big  river  come  to  provide  them- 
selves with  it  at  Ndobo.  In  return  for  the  delivery  of  a  slave,  thirty 
jars  are  given. 

"  The  village  itself  is  only  a  more  compact  succession  of  artificial 
islets.  Thus  one  sees  here  more  numerous  houses  on  a  more  restricted 
space,  and  it  is  here  that  we  must  go  to  study  more  completely  the 
mode  of  life  of  this  curious  people." 

North  of  the  Ngiri  River  the  country  is  of  a  less  swampy- 
nature,  of  a  sHghtly  higher  altitude,  and  a  more  varied  surface. 
Here  begins  and  stretches  north-eastwards  towards  the  middle 
Mubangi  the  splendidly  fertile  territory  of  the  Banza  people, 
"a  rolling,  down-like  country,  which  but  for  the  industrious 
agriculture  of  the  Banza  would  be  one  vast  forest  "  [the  slate 
formations  of  the  upper  Mongala  seem  to  e.Ktend  westwards 
across  the  Banza  district]. 

Except  where  the  vigorous,  agricultural,  non-Bantu  races  of 
the  Mubangi  basin  have  attacked  the  woodland  and  turned  it 
into  villages  and  plantations,  there  is  much  dense  forest  right 
across  this  region  from  the  lower  Mubangi  to  the  Rubi, 
Aruwimi,  Nepoko,  and  upper  Wele.  This  forest  extends  east- 
wards to  the  Semliki  River,  and  in  places  overlaps  the  Congo- 
Nile  water-parting.  Indeed,  as  regards  its  special  and  peculiar 
fauna,  it  even  reaches — in  isolated  patches — to  the  north- 
eastward coast-lands  of  the  Victoria  Nyanza  and  to  the  slopes 
of  Mount  Kenya.  Westwards,  across  the  Mubangi  and  Sanga 
rivers,  it  apparently  connects  with  the  dense  primeval  forests  of 
French  Coneo  and  the  southern  Cameroons  ;  and,  so  far  as 
peculiarities  of  fauna  are  concerned,  seems  even  to  be  con- 
tinued north  and  west  (with  many  breaks)  across  the  Niger 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES 


341 


delta  and  along  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  to  Liberia,  Sierra 
Leone,  and  Portuguese  Guinea.  Measured  from  north  to 
south,  this  belt  of  forest  with  its  remarkable  fauna  and  flora  is 
often  not  more  than  a  hundred  miles  in  width. 

It  has  a  peculiar  fauna  of  its  own,  some  members  of  which 
are  not  entirely  confined  to  its  limits,  but  extend  their  range  to 
the  north  or  south,  yet  are  most  concentrated  within  its  borders. 
Creatures  (so  far  as  we  know)  almost  entirely  confined  to  this 
special  forest  belt — in  isolated  areas,  or  throughout  the  whole 
lenofth  from  west  to  east 
—  are  the  Gorilla,  most 
species  of  Chimpanzi, 
several  kinds  of  Cercopi- 
theciis  monkey,  a  large, 
water  -  lovino-  I  nsectivore 
{Potajuoga/e),  the  Golden 
Cat  {Felis  aurata)^  the 
Bongo  or  Broad  -  horned 
Tragelaph  [Boocercus),  the 
Water  Chevrotain  {Dor- 
catheriiivi),  the  Flying 
Anomalure  (not  a  flying 
squirrel,  though  very  like 
one  superficially),  one  or 
two  species  of  Tree  Hyrax, 
the  Okapi,  and  the  big, 
black  Forest  Pig  (//y- 
iochoerus),  only  recently 
discovered.^  Besides  these 
peculiar  mammals  there 
are  some  species  or  genera 
of  birds  almost  entirely 
confined  to  this  narrow  forest  zone,  though  occasionally  stray- 

'  Vide  Mr.  R.  J.  Pocock's  paper,  Proceedings  Zoological  Society,  1907.  He  has 
revived  Temminck's  specific  name  in  lieu  of  the  alternative  chrysothrix  or  celidogaster. 

^  As  regards  the  Okapi,  this  primitive  Giraffine  type  was  first  definitely  heard  of 
by  the  writer  of  this  book  when  he  entered  the  Ituri  Forest  in  1900.  Through  the 
kindness  of  Lieutenant  Meura  and  Mr.  Eriksson  of  the  Congo  State  Government, 
he  was  supplied  with  a  skin  and  skulls,  besides  the  imperfect  specimens  of  skin  he 
had  already  collected.  Grenfell  'rediscovered'  it  in  the  Babali  country,  south  of  the 
Aruwimi,  in  1902,  and  wrote  of  it  in  his  survey  notes  as  the  Ndumba.  The  range  of 
the  Okapi  has  since  been  greatly  extended  by  the  researches  of  Captain  Boyd 
Alexander,  Major  Powell  Cotton,  the  Belgian  officials,  Leoni,  Jadoul,  SifYert,  Auzdlius, 
Arnold,  Mertens,  van  Hulde,  Sillye,  and  the  Swiss  Dr.  David  {vide  chapter  xxxni). 

The  black  Forest  Pig  {Hylockoerus)  was  first  of  all  alleged  by  Sir  Henry  Stanley 
and  by  the  present  writer  to  exist  in  the  Ituri  Forest.  Stanley  saw  it ;  Mr.  Doggett 
and  I  merely  collected  native  reports.  Grenfell  reported  its  existence  in  the  Aruwimi 
forests  under  the  name  of  Nsulu,  in  1902.    Curiously  enough,  the  animal  in  its  eastern 


THE  BONGO  OR  BROAD-HORNED 
TRAGELAPH 

(From  a  photograph  of  a  specimen  killed  on  the  N.E. 
Congo.)  The  brightly  contrasted  red  and  white-striped 
skin  of  this  splendid  beast  is  much  in  favour  amongst  the 
natives  of  the  Forest  region  for  bandoliers,  girdles,  etc., 
vieing  in  their  favour  with  that  of  the  Okapi. 


342   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 

ino^  southwards  into  the  main  Cong-o  basin.  Amonost  these 
IS  the  remarkable  and  primitive  type  of  Guinea-fowl,  Phasidus 
niger — a  blackish-brown  bird  without  white  spots,  and  with 
a  bare  head  and  neck,  yellow  and  orange.      Until  a  few 


IIIK   llNEbT  hrECIMEX   hXTANT  OF  A  MALE  OKAPI 
Set  up  in  the  Paris  Natural  History  Museum :  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Avakubi. 


species  was  actually  brought  to  light,  so  far  as  specimens  were  concerned,  by 
Mr.  C.  W.  Hobley  and  Captain  Meinerzhagen,  after  whom  the  first  described  species 
was  named.  Almost  before  Captain  INIeinerzhagen  obtained  his  specimens  from 
Mount  Kenya,  the  Congo  State  authorities  had  sent  home  remarkable  examples  from 
the  Ituri  Forest  to  be  studied  in  Belgium.  This  type  has  since  been  named  Hylo- 
choerus  itiitiensis  by  Professor  Paul  Matschie.  Then  followed  the  interesting  dis- 
covery of  Baron  Maurice  de  Rothschild  and  M.  H.  Neuville,  who  found  this  Forest 
Pig  existing  in  the  Nandi  forests,  north-east  of  the  A'ictoria  Nyanza,  and  even  in 
forests  north  of  Lake  Baringo.  Simultaneously  proof  of  its  existence  in  the  forests  of 
the  southern  Cameroons  was  transmitted  by  Mr.  G.  L.  Bates,  who  has  done  so  much  to 
illustrate  the  zoology  of  that  region.  Mr.  Bates's  specimen  was  found  to  be  distinct 
from  the  East  and  Central  African  types  and  was  named  Hylochoerus  riviator.  It  is 
more  highly  specialized.  The  existence  of  this  Forest  Pig  has  been  credibly  reported 
from  eastern  Liberia  by  Mr.  Maitland  Pye-Smith,  and  the  Dutch  geographer  Dapper 
gives  a  description  of  a  black  pig  found  in  western  Liberia  in  the  early  seventeenth 
century  which  seems  very  likely  to  be  the  Hylochoerus.  Junker  in  1891  hints  at  the 
existence  "  of  a  third  species  of  pig,  other  than  the  Wart-hog  and  Red-river-hog,"  in 
the  Bari  country  west  of  Lado. 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES 


343 


years  ago  the  range  of  this  bird  was  thought  to  be  Hmited 
to  the  Gaboon  (French  Congo),  where  it  was  discovered 
by  Paul  Du  Chaillu,  but  it  has  recently  been  obtained  by 
Belo^ians  in  the  Ituri  Forest,  more  than  a  thousand  miles  to 
the  east.  A  somewhat  allied  form  i^Agelastes)  is  found  in  the 
forests  of  the  Gold  Coast  and  Liberia.  Then  there  is  the 
Great  Blue  Plantain-eater  (which  extends  down  the  Congo  to 


190.    AN  ADULT  MALE  OF  THE  BLACK.  FOREST  PIG  (HYLOCHOERUS)  OF 
NORTH-EAST  CONGOLAND  AND  EQUATORIAL  EAST  AFRICA 
(From  one  of  the  specimens  obtained  by  Baron  Maurice  de  Rothschild.) 


Nyangwe),  and  there  are  two  genera  of  Hornbills  {Ccralogynnia 
and  Ortholophus),  besides  many  other  birds,  several  chameleons, 
one  or  two  snakes,  and  a  good  many  butterflies  and  beetles. 
The  interesting  part  about  this  narrow  Equatorial  forest  zone 
of  Africa  stretching  from  Mount  Kenya  on  the  east  to  Portu- 
guese Guinea  on  the  west  is  that  its  affinities  are  distinctly 
Malayan  or  Miocene-European.  Fossil  types  discovered  in 
India  indicate  that  this  forest  zone  may  have  been  continuous 
across  the  Tropics  of  the  Old  World  from  westernmost  Guinea 
to  easternmost  Malaya — Java  and  Borneo. 

The  Gorilla  was  at  one  time  thought  to  be  restricted  in  its 
range  to  the  Gaboon,  South  Cameroons,  and  the  western  part 
of  French  Congo.  We  now  know  that  it  is  found  as  far  north 
in  the  Cameroons  as  the  Sanaga  River  and  as  far  south  as  the 


344   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Niadi-Kvvilu,  close  to  the  Lower  Congo.  Gorillas  have  been 
credibly  reported  from  the  Sanga  River,  a  hundred  miles  or 
so  west  of  the  lower  Mubangi,  Thence,  proceeding  eastwards, 
so  far  as  records  went,  there  was  a  blank  between  the  Sanga  and 
the  Rubi,  as  there  has  been  also  in  the  range  of  other  types 
characteristic  of  this  forest  belt  of  Equatorial  Africa.  But  in 
the  summer  of  1905,  Grenfell  himself  killed  a  gorilla  in  the 
Bwela  country  near  the  river  Motima.  He  writes  as  follows  in 
a  private  letter  of  August  12  1905  : — 

"  When  I  was  on  the  way  to  one  of  the  inland  Schools  of  which  I 
wrote  you  earlier  on  we  came  across  a  party  of  Gorillas.  They  were  in 
the  branches  of  a  tree  nearly  150  feet  high,  and  quite  out  of  range  of  a 
shot-gun.  To  the  great  joy  of  my  hungry  boys  (they  are  always 
hungry  for  meat)  I  brought  one  down  with  a  rifle  bullet.  It  was  not  a 
very  tall  one,  only  four  feet  high,  but  it  was  very  thickly  built  and  im- 
mensely strong.  The  natives  say  the  gorillas  kill  the  leopards  by  an 
open-handed  blow  on  the  side  of  the  head,  and  one  can  quite  believe  it, 
having  regard  to  the  length  of  the  arm  and  size  of  the  hand.  I  remem- 
ber Mr.  Saker  once  telling  me  they  fought  '  swinging  their  hands  round 
like  shovels ! '  The  natives  went  on  to  tell  me  that  the  gorillas  don't 
eat  the  leopards  at  once,  but  that  they  scratch  holes  in  some  soft  place 
and  then  cover  them  up,  and  place  on  the  top  branches  of  wood  that 
the  hyenas  cannot  lift,  and  then,  in  three  or  four  days,  when  the  meat  is 
sufficiently  '  high,'  they  go  and  feast  on  their  enemies  !  " 

In  the  Aruwimi  basin  as  far  east  as  Mawambi  the  Gorilla  is 
reported  to  exist  in  the  dense  forests  ;  also  between  the  Congo 
at  Stanley  Falls  and  the  vicinity  of  Uganda  (Virunga  vol- 
canoes). Captain  Guy  Burrows  in  the  Land  of  the  Pygmies 
gives  a  photograph  ot  an  alleged  gorilla  killed  near  Stanley 
Falls  which  may  be  the  Gorilla  beringeri^  actually  ob- 
tained from  the  forests  of  the  Virunga  volcanoes,  north  of 
Lake  Kivu,  by  Mr.  Oscar  Beringer.  The  present  writer, 
when  in  the  Ituri  Forest  in  1900,  was  shown  photographs 
of  an  ape  of  large  size  like  a  gorilla  which  had  been  killed 
by  the  natives  near  Avakubi,  and  photographed  by  a  Belgian 
officer. 

Grenfell's  references  to  gorillas  and  chimpanzis  all  apply 
to  the  north  bank  of  the  Congo  or  to  regions  beyond  the 
north  or  right  bank.  And  this  prompts  the  present  writer  to 
advance  an  interestino-  suoraestion,  namelv,  that  the  lake-like 
course  and  basin  of  the  main  Cong^o  has  been  a  grreat  factor  in 
limiting  the  distribution  of  the  forest-zone  fauna  southwards. 

^  Vide  "Notes  on  Anthropoid  Apes,"  by  the  Honble.  Walter  Rothschild,  Pro- 
ceedings Zoological  Society,  1 904. 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES  345 

All  creatures  like  the  great  apes  unable  or  unwilling  to  cross 
broad  expanses  of  water,  and  entering  Africa  from  the  north  or 
east,  must  have  been  effectually  stopped  in  their  progress  south- 
westwards  by  the  Congo,  from  Lake  Bangweulu  to  the 
Atlantic.    Although  the  Chimpanzi  has  been  at  times  reported 


191.    A  CHIMPANZI  FROM  THE  BATEKE  COUNTRY  NORTH  OF 
STANLEY  POOL 
Photographed  by  Grenfell  at  Brazzaville. 


to  exist  south  of  the  Congo,  in  Angola,  no  specimen  (that  I 
know  of)  in  any  museum  can  be  derived  with  certainty  from 
south  of  the  Lower  Congo.  The  confusion  arises  probably 
from  specimens  sent  to  Europe  in  former  days  from  Kabinda 
or  Luango,  districts  more  or  less  Portuguese,  but  north  of  the 
Congo.  The  present  writer  cannot  recall  any  evidence  as  to 
the  existence  of  a  chimpanzi  or  gorilla  from  any  portion  of  the 


346   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Congo  basin  south  or  west  of  the  main  Congo.  A  chimpanzi 
(Livingstone's  "  Soko  ")  is  found  on  the  west  coast  of  Tan- 
ganyika, in  the  Manyema  country,  and  as  far  south  as 
Marungu,  in  the  region  between  Tanganyika  and  the  Lualaba. 
But  I  beUeve  so  far  no  specimen  of  great  ape^  has  been 
collected  south  or  west  of  the  main  Congo,  nor  has  any  other 
mammal  of  the  forest  belt  which  is  unable  to  swim  or  to  cross 
in  some  way  a  broad,  deep,  rapid  current.  For  example,  I 
believe  only  one  species  of  Manis  anteater — the  East  African 
Manis  temniinckii — penetrates  into  the  region  south  of 
the  main  Congo,  and  Manis  temjninckii  extends  over  South 
Africa  as  well.  The  range  of  the  three  other  species  of  this 
"  edentate "  keeps  to  the  regions  north  of  the  Congo,  from 
Sierra  Leone  to  Uganda. 

o 

This  barrier  of  the  Congo  may  be  a  reason  why  the  mamma- 
lian fauna  of  central  Congoland  is  comparatively  poor.  The 
broad  river  has  stopped  the  advance  from  the  north  and  east  of 
so  many  beasts  characteristic  of  the  Equatorial  forest  belt,  while 
the  East  African  fauna  has  not  yet  had  time  to  travel  all  the  way 
round  the  sources  of  the  Congo  and  penetrate  northwards  to  the 
regions  beyond  the  Kasai  and  Lukenye.  The  original  lake 
basin  of  the  Congo  to  the  north  of  the  Lukenye  River  is  the 
region  that  seems  to  be  poorest  in  species  of  mammals,  in 
comparison  with  the  wealth  of  Central,  South  Central,  and 
Eastern  Africa. 

In  1885  Grenfell,  as  already  related,  had  traced  the  Mubangi 
River  as  far  upstream  as  the  Zongo  Rapids,  and  had  penetrated 
beyond  just  enough  to  realize  that  the  river  came  from  the  east, 
and  might  conceivably  be  the  lower  course  of  Schweinfurth's 
Wele.  In  1887  his  task  was  continued  by  Lieutenant  (afterwards 
Lt.-Col.  and  Vice-Governor)  \'angele,  of  the  Belgian  Army. 
Vangele  by  January  1888  had  traced  the  Mubangi  under  the 
names  of  Dua  and  Koyu  some  distance  past  its  confluence  with 
the  Mbomu.  He  penetrated,  in  fact,  far  enough  to  make  its 
identification  with  the  W ele  a  matter  of  certainty,  especially  as 
Dr.  Junker  had  a  few  years  previously  greatly  extended  the 
western  course  of  Schweinfurth's  river.  The  Greek  explorer. 
Dr.  Potagos,  in  1877  had  discovered  the  Mbomu,  a  river  which 
was  made  more  clearly  known  by  Junker. 

1  Mr.  S.  p.  A'erner,  however  {Pioneeri?ig  in  Central  Africa),  states  that  he  has 
seen  a  chimpanzi  in  the  forests  of  the  Lulua.  These  apes  might  however  have 
crossed  the  Lualaba  near  its  sources,  and  have  found  their  way  north  to  the  forests 
between  the  Lomami  and  the  Kasai. 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES 


347 


After  Vangele's  successful  exploit,  a  number  of  enterprising 
Belgians  and  several  French  explorers  launched  themselves 
with  enthusiasm  on  the  northern  portion  of  the  Congo  basin, 
and  by  1895  all  the  main  facts  of  geography  in  this  direction 
had  been  recorded  and  mapped. 

The  ultimate  source  of  the  head-stream  of  the  Wele  is  within 
a  few  miles — perhaps  not  more  than  twenty-five — of  the  station 
of  Wadelai  on  the  Mountain  Nile.  The  upper  Wele,  known  in 
these  regions  as  the  Kibi,  I  ret,  and  Kibali,  rises  with  many 
contributing  streams  in  the  same  knot  of  mountains  (Mounts 
Speke,  Emin,  Schweinfurth,  etc. — about  three  to  four  thousand 
feet  in  altitude)  as  gives  rise  to  the  Aruwimi-Ituri  on  the  south, 
and  on  the  east  to  many  affluents  of  the  Nile.  The  northern 
limits  of  this  range  also  feed  the  Kibali  through  its  north- 
easternmost  affluent,  the  Dungu  or  Bangari  River. ^  This  united 
with  the  Kibali  takes  the  name  of  Wele  or  Werre"  in  the 
Manbettu  country. 

At  the  place  called  Bomokandi  the  Wele  is  joined  by  a 
very  considerable  affluent — the  Bomokandi — which  under  the 
name  of  Meri-Mayo  rises  in  the  Momvu  country  near  the 
sources  of  the  Ituri,  flowing  in  almost  parallel  loops  to  those  of 
the  Wele.  Below  the  Bomokandi  confluence  the  Wele  is  some- 
times known  as  Malima,  then  as  Makua,  then  again  as  Koyu  ; 
but  as  the  river  flows  through  a  region  of  singularly  diverse 
tribes  and  languages,  it  probably  bears  at  least  a  hundred  differ- 
ent names.  At  Yakoma  it  is  joined  by  the  Mbili,  and  by  the 
very  big  river  Mbomu,  which  has  acquired  importance  as  being 
the  frontier  between  the  French  and  Belgian  Congo,  from  the 
point  where  both  of  them  are  conterminous  with  the  Egyptian 
Sudan. 

The  Mbomu  in  its  lower  course  is  interrupted  by  many  falls 
and  rapids.  Navigation  by  canoes,  with  some  intervals  of 
portage,  is  carried  on  as  far  upstream  as  Bangaso. 

From  the  confluence  of  the  Wele  with  the  Mbima,  below 
Bomokandi,  it  becomes  a  broad  stream,  but  its  course  between 
there  and  the  vicinity  of  the  Mbomu  is  interrupted  by  rapids  or 
falls  which  are  serious  obstacles  to  steamer  navigation,  though 
steam  launches  during  the  flood  season  of  the  year  can  ascend 
the  Wele-Mubangi  from  the  Congo  to  the  post  of  Banzyville. 

'  It  was  on  the  head-waters  of  the  Dungu  at  Ndirfi  that  Baron  Dhanis'  troops 
revolted  February  14  1897,  as  he  was  on  his  way  to  occupy  the  Bahr-al-Ghazal  region. 

^  Ware,  Werre,  or  Wele  is  the  name  applied  to  a  number  of  different  rivers  in 
this  part  of  the  Congo  basin,  and  is  probably  a  widespread  term  for  a  flowing  stream 
in  this  part  of  Central  Africa.  It  may  be  related  to  the  Bale,  Bari,  Bere  of  the 
N.  Western  Bantu. 


348   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


From  here  to  Jabir^  (the  former  capital  of  a  Nyamnyam  sultan- 
ate), and  for  some  fifty  miles  beyond  Jabir,  navigation  can  be 
continued  in  canoes,  even  to  the  post  of  Semio  on  the  Werre. 
From  Amadi  on  the  Wele-Makua  eastwards  to  the  Logo 
country  the  river  is  again  navigable  by  boats  or  canoes  (some 
two  hundred  miles). 

The  Rapids"  [beginning  southwards  at  Zongo],  which 
stopped  Grenfell  in  1885,  are,  however,  the  limit  of  easy,  all- 
the-year-round  navigation  from  the  Congo  confluence  upstream. 
Here  the  Mubangi  forces  its  way  through  two  ridges  of  low 
hills  which  run  from  the  north-west  to  the  south-east  athwart 
its  course.  This  hilly  region  extends  southwards  for  some 
distance  beyond  the  right  bank  of  the  Mubangi,  as  far  south,  in 
fact,  as  the  Lua  River,  where  the  swampy  region  begins.  This 
undulating  country  of  low  hills  separates  the  basin  of  the 
Mubangi  on  the  east  and  south  from  the  watershed  of  the 
Mongala  River  and  its  many  affluents,  and  really  marks  the 
northern  limits  of  the  origrinal  Congro  Lake. 

Along  its  north  or  right  bank  the  Mubangi  receives  many 
affluents  with  an  imposing  length  of  course,  but  not  always  of 
great  volume,  inasmuch  as  they  take  their  rise  in  the  dry 
regions  of  the  central  Sudan.  The  head-stream  of  the  Chinko 
or  Shinko  rises  farthest  north  of  all  the  Congo  affluents — 
almost  under  the  8th  degree  of  N.  Lat.  The  Chinko  and  the 
Bali  join  the  Mbomu.  The  Koto  River  rises  also  not  far  south 
of  8°  from  a  low  range  of  mountains  on  the  borders  of  the 
Chad-Shari  basin,  and  is  rather  an  important  racial  boundary,  to 
some  extent  definino;  the  frontier  between  the  Nsakara  and  the 
more  savage  negro  tribes.  Its  lower  course  is  barred  with  many 
rapids.  Another  northern  affluent  of  the  Mubangi  is  the 
Kwango,  interesting  from  its  Bantu  name.  Amongst  the 
north-western  affluents  are  the  Kemo  and  Tomi  (both  partly 
navigable  from  near  the  Shari  water  -  parting),  the  Mpoko, 
Bali-Lobai,  and  Ibenga,  rivers  of  considerable  volume  rising- 
close  to  the  upper  Sanga  and  navigable  for  some  distance  by 

'  Jabir  was  (seemingly)  an  Abandjia  (Zande,  Nyamnyam)  chiefs  son  who  early 
attached  himself  to  a  party  of  Sudanese  traders,  thus  reaching  Khartum  and  becoming 
acquainted  with  Gordon's  Government.  He  subsequently  returned  with  a  large 
following  and  many  guns,  and  founded  a  chieftainship  on  the  Wele.  He  was  executed 
by  the  Belgians  in  1905  after  an  unsuccessful  rising  against  the  State. 

2  I  have  ventured  to  give  the  comprehensive  name  of  "Grenfell  Falls"  to  the 
series  of  rapids  which  (except  at  times  of  high  flood)  completely  interrupt  navigation 
on  the  Mubangi.  These  extend  for  a  distance  of  about  forty-five  miles,  beginning  on 
the  north  with  the  Rapid  of  Mokwangai  ;  then  follow  close  together  the  Rapid  of  the 
Elephant,  of  the  En  Avant,  of  Basera,  and  of  Belli.  After  this  there  is  a  stretch  of 
twenty  miles  of  troubled  water,  and  then  the  final  Zongo  Fall.    (H.  H.  J.) 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES 


349 


canoes.  All  the  regions  to  the  north  and  west  of  the  Mubangi, 
from  its  confluence  with  the  Mbomu  to  the  main  Congo,  are  of 
course  part  of  French  West  Africa. 

The  mountains  or  hills  both  north  and  south  of  the  Mubangi 
River  seem  to  be  rich  in  copper,  and  most  of  the  peoples  of 
this  region  work  this  metal.  Alluvial  gold  has  been  discovered 
in  the  extreme  north-east  of  the  Congo  basin,  in  the  Kilo 
mountain  streams  about  thirty  miles  west  of  the  shores  of  Lake 
Albert.  Washing  the  sands  of  the  western  Ituri  in  these 
mountain  valleys  is  becoming  a  lucrative  operation,  attracting 
large  numbers  of  negroes  from  the  Nile  territories  of  the 
Uganda  Protectorate.  This  is  the  only  region  of  the  Congo 
Free  State  as  yet  wherein  payable  gold  has  been  discovered, 
except  of  course 
the  mines  of  Ka- 
tanga in  the  far 
south. 

North  of  the 
central  Mubangi, 
past  the  rapids  of 
Zongo,  there  is  a 
flat  district  which 
was  once  a  lake 
(no  doubt)  im- 
prisoned for  a  time  192.  gnathonemus  ibis,  a  kish  of  the  mubangi 
behind  the  Zongo  ^'^'^^^ 
barrier,  through  which  it  burst  to  join  the  vast  inland  sea  of  the 
Congo.  This  northern  plain  is  ill-spoken  of  for  agriculture,  but 
it  seems  to  be  a  magnificent  game  country.  The  undulating  or 
hilly  land  south  of  the  Mubangi  (a  tongue  of  which  reaches  to 
the  main  Congo  at  Bopoto)  is  praised  by  many  travellers  for  its 
rich  soil  and  advanced  native  agriculture.  The  dense  forest  does 
not  seem  to  extend  north  of  the  Wele-Makua-Mubangi,  and  be- 
yond the  Aruwimi  basin  has  been  much  abated  by  the  vigorous 
agriculture  of  the  Mafibettu,  A-zande,  Ababua,  Mongwandi,  and 
Banza.  There  is  much  honey  in  all  the  lands  of  the  Mubangi- 
Wele  basin.  The  Ligurian  honey-bee  is  said  to  be  present  in 
the  Nyamnyam  country  (A-banjia).  North  of  the  Mubangi- 
Wele  the  big  mammalian  fauna  is  quite  "  Sudanian  " — giraffes, 
black  buffalo,  lions,  rhinoceros,  giant  eland,  hartebeest,  tsesebe, 
water-buck,  wild  dogs  {Lycaon),  and  hyaenas.  The  zebra  seems 
to  be  completely  absent  from  all  regions  west  of  the  Nile. 
It  is  only  found  in  the  south-east  and  extreme  south  of  the 
Congo  basin. 


350   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


The  Ethnology  of  all  this  North  Congo  region  is  far  more 
complicated  than  any  other  division  of  the  Congo  basin. 
Linguistically,  we  are  no  longer  in  the  exclusive  domain  of  the 
Bantu.  Racially,  the  physical  type  varies  from  the  pygmy 
and  from  the  most  primitive  form  of  forest  negro  known  (in 
the  eastern  basin  of  the  Aruwimi)  upwards  through  such 
magnificent  blackmen  as  the  Ababua,  Mongwandi,  Sango,  and 
Banza,  to  the  negroid  Nsakara  and  the  almost  Hamitic  aristo- 
cracies among  the  Nyamnyam  and  Manbettu. 

The  natives  of  the  densely  forested  Aruwimi  basin  include 
considerable  numbers  of  Pygmies,  interspersed  among  the 
taller  tribes  of  Bantu  or  Sudanese  negroes.  The  dwarf 
hunters  of  the  forests  are  seemingly  of  two  or  more  types, 
black-skinned  and  yellow-skinned.  The  lighter-coloured 
pygmies  in  addition  are  sometimes  of  quite  refined  features  and 
comely  appearance.  But  this  variation  must  be  due  to  inter- 
mixture with  outside  races.  The  typical  pygmy,  whether  dark 
or  light  in  skin  colour,  presents  these  characteristic  features  : 
rather  bulging  eyes,  an  absolutely  flat  nose  with  the  alee  nearly 
on  a  level  with  the  flattened  tip,  a  very  long  upper  lip,  not 
everted  (as  in  the  ordinary  negro),  and  a  weak  and  retreating 
chin  ;  also  a  tendency  to  the  growth  of  light-coloured,  downy 
hair  on  the  body  and  to  reddish  hair  on  the  head.  The 
pygmy  type  has  not  been  reported  to  occur  to  the  west  of  the 
Aruwimi-Rubi  basin.  It  is  not  heard  of  in  these  latitudes 
westwards,  until  the  traveller  reaches  the  regions  west  of  the 
Mubangi  ;  also  the  Sanga,  Ogowe  and  southern  Cameroons. 
North  of  the  Aruwimi  the  pygmy  peoples  extend  to  the 
Wele-Makua  (where  they  are  called  Balia,  Akka,  Bakke-bakke, 
and  Tikitiki),  and  even  in  a  more  mixed  type  into  the  Bahr- 
al-Ghazal  region  (the  "Red  Bongo").  Eastwards  and  south- 
wards the  pygmies  under  the  names  of  Bambute  or  Wambutti, 
Bakiokiva  or  Bakwa  are  found  in  the  Ituri-Aruwimi  and 
Semliki  basins,  and  along  the  Albertine  Rift  valley  to  the 
north  and  west  coasts  of  Tanganyika  [Bativd).  They  are 
present  in  central  Congoland  [Batzva,  Baptdii,  Baj'timbi,  Bua) 
from  the  Lomami  right  across  to  the  Lulongo,  the  Ruki  and 
Lake  Ntomba,  and  also  in  the  forest  regions  of  the  Sankuru- 
Kasai  basin  {^Batzva,  Bakzva,  Yeke),  and  in  Ubudjwa,  between 
the  Lualaba  and  Tanganyika  [vide  chapter  xxi]. 

The  black  negroes  of  the  central  and  upper  Aruwimi  basin 
belong  mostly  (but  not  entirely)  to  the  "  Forest  negro  "  type, 
with  disproportionately  short  legs,  long  arms,  and  prognathous 
faces.    The  Balese  and  Balende  of  the  upper  Ituri  make  them- 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES 


351 


selves  additionally  hideous  by  the  women  wearing  large  lip- 
rings.  But  here,  as  elsewhere  along  the  northern  watershed 
of  the  Congo,  there  has  been  a  mingling  of  blood  with  the 
Sudan,  a  slight  infiltration  of  the  Hamite  and  the  tall  Nilotic 


neg^ro. 


Indeed  the  Aruwimi  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  routes 
by  which  the  northern  negroes  and  negroids  broached  the 
Congo  basin,  pierced  the  im-  r  —  " 

penetrable  forests  to  reach  the 
great  river-highway. 

In  arts  and  manufactures 
some  of  the  Aruwimi  tribes 
have  not  got  beyond  the  wood- 
and-stone  age,  and  still  employ 
wooden  spears  and  arrow- 
heads ;  others  work  copper  and 
iron  most  successfully  and  ar- 
tistically,^ make  beautiful  pot- 
tery of  a  high  order  of  aesthetic 
merit 

Langfuag-e  families  tog^ether 
with  racial  types  are  very  di- 
verse in  north-eastern  Cong'o- 
land  ;  a  language  map  of  this 
region  would  look  much  like 
the  geology  of  Somersetshire — 
samples  of  many  formations  of 
widely  separated  ages.  In  the 
extreme  north-east,  on  the 
verge  of  the  Nile  watershed 
near  Lake  Albert,  are  the 
Nilotic  negro  tribes  of  the  Adyellu,  and  Alur  or  Alulu. 
West  and  north  of  the  Adyellu  are  Mundtt  and  Misa 
peoples,  mainly  in  the  basin  of  the  Yei.  The  Misa  would 
almost  seem  to  offer  some  linguistic  connection  with  the 
North  Congo  Bantu.  On  the  lofty  plateaux  and  mountains 
stretching  between  the  sources  of  the  Ituri  and  the  head- 
waters of  the  Wele  are  the  Logo,  Lega,  Drudu  or  Lendii  (the 
correct  name  is  uncertain) — a  tribe  of  very  mixed  physical 
type  ;  simian,  short-legged  pygmies  and  tall,  big-nosed,  hand- 


193.  A  thief's  weapon  from  banalya, 

ARUWIMI 

Used  for  stealing  goats,  to  simulate  a  leopard's 
claws,  and  sometimes  a  woman's  breast  is  torn 
off  by  this  as  a  punishment. 


*  Among  Other  strange  implements  brought  back  by  Grenfell  from  the  Aruwimi 
is  the  extraordinary  weapon  figured  here,  resembhng  very  markedly  similar  imita- 
tions of  eopards'  claws  used  by  the  cannibal  secret  societies  of  southern  Sierra 
Leone. 


352   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


some  negroids  belonging  to  the  same  community.  The  Lendu, 
Drudu,  or  Lega'  speak  a  language  (see  my  Uganda  Pro- 
tectorate) as  yet  quite  isolated  and  without  affinities.  South 
of  the  Lendu  and  west  of  the  upper  Semliki  is  the  peculiar 
Bantu  group  of  the  Bahuku  (Bamboga),  related  in  language  to 
the  speech  of  the  lower  Aruwimi  and  Northern  Congo. 
Between  the  mid-Semliki  and  the  upper  Lindi  and  Chopo 
rivers  there  are  Babira  forest  tribes  {Banande  is  one  of  their 
designations)  of  low  physical  type,  speaking  a  degraded  form 
of  Bantu  tongue  (the  "  Kibira  "  of  the  present  writer's  Uganda 
Protectorate).  Then  behind  the  Lendu  and  the  Bahuku  are 
the  other  BabiJ^a,'^  a  tall,  handsome  Bantu  people  said  to  speak 
a  dialect  of  classical  Bantu  related  to  the  Uganda- Unvoro- 
Kavirondo  group. 

West  of  the  Babira,  and  extendinof  across  the  Wele- 
Aruwimi  basins  in  a  south-easterly  direction,  is  the  Momvu- 
Mbtiba  group  of  peoples.  These  penetrate  through  the  foreign 
region  till  they  come  to  the  very  verge  of  the  Congo  watershed, 
and  look  down,  as  it  were,  on  the  valley  of  the  Semliki,  behind 
the  country  of  Mboga.  North-westwards,  this  Momvu  group 
fuses  into  the  Mafibettu  caste,  though  there  is  apparently  no 
connection  in  language.  The  Momvu-Mbuba  tongue  is  abso- 
lutely  non-Bantu  in  its  roots  and  structure,  though  it  resembles 
it  in  phonology.  It  does  not  seem  to  ofter  any  evidence 
of  connection  with  Mafibettu,  though  it  is  tempting  to  trace 
the  racial  name  Momvu  through  Mombutu  to  Mafibettu.  This 
also  seems  to  be  connected  with  the  tribal  name  of  Mbiitu  or 
Mbote  {Bainbute)  which  is  applied  for  the  most  part  to  the 
pygmies  in  the  Ituri  Forest^  who  speak  a  dialect  of  Mbuba.  Just 
as  there  are  Batwa  forest  negroes  in  the  Kasai  basin  of  tall 
stature,  and  also  Batwa  pygmies,  Barumbe  dwarfs,  and  tall 
Barumbe  riverain  tribes,  and  the  same  thing  with  the  Bapoto  or 
Baputu  of  the  northern  Congo  (some  of  which  are  yellow  dwarf 
hunters,  others  tall  black  river  folk),  so  the  term  Mbute  does  not 
seem  necessarily  to  be  restricted  to  the  pygmies  of  the  Ituri,  but  to 
be  connected  with  Mombutu  and  Momvu.  This  racial  name  also 
appears  as  Mabode  to  the  north  of  the  main  Aruwimi,  between 
that  river  and  the  Bomokandi.    The  Mabode  people  are  ap- 

1  Stanley's  Baregga  of  the  south-west  corner  of  Lake  Albert.  My  identification 
of  them  with  the  "  Logo"  of  the  Belgians  and  of  Boyd  Alexander  is  only  an  assump- 
tion based  on  slight  evidence.  The  Logo  of  the  Nile-Wele  water-parting  may  belong 
to  the  Madi,  Mundu,  or  Nilotic  groups. 

^  -bira.,  -znia,  -bila  simply  means  "forest."    Babira  =  people  of  the  forest. 

^  South  of  the  Ituri  Forest,  the  pygmies  speak  Bantu  dialects. 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES 


353 


parently  related  to  the  Manbettu/  A  sub-tribe  of  the  Man- 
bettu  is  styled  Bangba.  This  may  be  an  overlaid  Bantu  people, 
possibly  a  former  member  of  the  Ababua-Babati  group. 

There  is  a  very  distant  connection  between  the  Mbuba 
language  and  the  mysterious  tongue  of  the  Banianga  and 
western  Bakunm  non- Bantu  languages,  revealed  to  us  by  the 
studies  of  the  late  W.  H.  Stapleton.  The  Banianga  and 
kindred  tribes  stretch  from  the  southern  basin  of  the  Lindi 
and  the  upper  Chopo 
river  to  the  Conoro  at 
Stanley  Falls,  and  even 
extend  across  the  west 
bank  of  the  Congo 
in  the  direction  of  the 
Lomami. 

Along  the  Nepoko 
the  people  seem  to  be 
partly  Mafibetlti,  partly 
Monivu. 

The  dominant  class 
amono-  the  Maiibettu 
is  obviously  tinged 
with  Caucasian  blood 
by  some  intermixture 
with  N  y  a  m  n  y  a  m 
raiders  or  neo  roid  wan- 
derers  of  Hamitico- 
Nilotic  origin  (like  the 
Bahima  of  Uganda). 
The  Mafibettu  lan- 
guage— at  present  very  little  known — is  very  peculiar  in  its 
forms  and  offers  as  yet  no  clue  to  near  relationships  :  here  and 
there  is  a  possibly  elusive  resemblance  in  a  word-root  to  Madi 
or  Nyamnyam. 

The  western  basin  of  the  Aruwimi  is  entirely  Bantu.  South 
of  the  main  river  and  north  of  the  lower  Lindi  are  the  Babaii 


194.  TYPICAL  lOKKhl    NEGROES  im  I 
(One  of  them  a  Mission  boy.) 


^  Captain  Guy  Burrows  denies  this  connection  {The  Land  of  the  Pygmies). 
Some  say  the  Mabode  are  Bantu  Ababua.  Monibutlu  is  probably  only  a  variant  of 
Mafibettu,  but  the  name  is  used  now  by  some  writers  to  indicate  the  serfs  of  the 
aristocratic  Mafibettu.  Boyd  Alexander  describes  the  'Mombutu'  as  strong  in 
physique,  with  broad  faces,  blunt  noses  and  high  cheekbones. 

^  The  forest  negroes  of  the  countries  between  the  upper  Ituri  and  the  Lindi 
(?  Babaii)  are  described  by  Lord  Mountmorres  as  timid  yet  grasping,  feeble  both  of 
intellect  and  physique,  short  of  stature,  and  revelling  in  most  repulsive  cicatrization 
and  a  curious  garishness  in  personal  adornment  and  attire.  It  is  here  that  mutila- 
tion of  the  lips  of  women  is  practised  most  extensively,  some  having  the  upper  and 


I. — 2  A 


354  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


between  Popoie  and  Panga  along  the  Aruwimi  course  are  the 
Bagnnda  (sometimes  called  the  Bangelinia).  East  of  the  Bapo- 
poie  [Bagunda]  are  the  Babili  or  Bomili,  a  "  backward  forest 
people  of  repulsive  appearance  "  (Mountmorres).  West  of  the 
Bagunda  are  the  Banalya  people,  who  are  apparently  related  in 
language  and  other  affinities  to  the  Magboro^  or  Maboro  of  the 
north.  ^  The  Magboro  seem  to  belono-  to  the  great  Ababua 
group.  According  to  Vice-Consul  Michell  their  proper  name  is 
Bitbiia  or  Abobiva. 

West  of  Yambuya  on  the  Aruwimi  and  alonor  the  Congo 
banks  on  either  side  of  the  Aruwimi  confluence  are  the  far- 
famed  Ba-soko  (sometimes  styled  Basaka,  Bazoko,  Basongo, 
Barumbu).  They  are  related  in  language  and  perhaps  origin 
to  the  riverain  Congo  people — Turumbu,  Baunga,  Topoke,  and 
Lokele,  and  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  lower  Lomami.^ 

"  The  Basoko  men  are  big,  strong,  and  capable  of  education.*  They 
wear  a  loin  cloth  of  felted  bark  ;  their  weapons  are  a  shield  of  basket- 
work,  a  broad-headed  iron  spear,  a  long  wooden  pike  hardened  at  the 
fire,  and  a  great  curved  knife.  In  war  they  are  streaked  with  red,  white, 
and  black  and  wear  an  immense  head-dress  of  feathers. 

"  Ordinarily  if  they  are  not  in  boats  on  their  way  to  the  markets  or 
to  visit  fisheries,  they  are  walking  about  with  their  weapons,  or  their 

some  both  upper  and  lower  lips  extended  by  means  ot  an  ivory  disk  let  into  the  flesh, 
so  that  they  form  a  kind  of  beak  ;  others  again  draw  the  nether  lip  down  by  means 
of  a  large  crystal  until  it  hangs  below  the  chin. 

"The  men  of  these  tribes,  however,  are  good  huntsmen,  carrying  little  bows  and 
exquisitely  made  arrows,  which  they  use  with  a  Pygmy-like  deftness."  Their  huts 
also  seem  to  be  very  like  those  of  the  Pygmies,  low  shelters  thatched  with  large 
leaves.  Between  Bafwaboli  and  Bafwasendi  the  people  are  of  a  slightly  higher  type, 
with  better-constructed  villages  and  better-cultivated  plantations. 

^  "The  Liagboro  language  is  spoken  at  Banalya,  on  the  middle  Aruwimi,''  Gren- 
fell  notes,  besides  stating  that  the  tribes  to  the  south,  such  as  the  Bangba,  speak  the 
Ndaka  language,  which  may  be  that  of  the  (eastern)  Bakumu,  a  very  corrupt  Bantu 
(see  page  328). 

-  Note  derived  from  a  Belgian  source  : 

"  From  the  moral  and  intellectual  point  of  view,  the  natives  of  the  Banalya 
villages  and  those  up  the  river  are  superior  to  the  Basoko,  but  they  are  far  inferior 
to  them  as  fishers  and  paddlers.  When  they  go  up  the  river  they  make  little  use  of 
the  paddle  ;  when  the  depth  of  the  water  allows  it,  they  use  the  pole,  which  they 
handle  in  a  remarkably  even  style.  The  Bagunda  use  the  bow  and  arrow.  The 
tribe  is,  it  appears,  a  very  important  one.  Like  the  Banalya,  the  Bagunda  pound 
kola  nut  to  make  from  it  a  beverage  which  they  suck  through  a  straw." 

^  The  domain  of  the  Soko-Kele  peoples  might  be  called  the  Ya  country, 
from  the  constant  use  in  place  names  of  this  unexplained  prefix.  Up  the  Lindi  River 
there  is  a  large  district  in  which  the  names  of  the  villages  or  tribal  settlements  begin 
with  Bafwa-  or  Bav7va-.  On  the  central  .Aruwimi  there  is  the  Ava  district  ;  farther 
to  the  east  most  village  names  begin  with  Audi-  or  Inde-  (this  may  be  a  Momvu-Mbuba 
prefix  :  it  stretches  from  near  the  Semliki  on  the  south  to  the  Kibali-Wele  on  the  north). 
Many  of  the  Mahbettu  names  begin  with  Ne-:  it  would  be  interesting  to  elucidate  the 
purport  of  these  particles  peculiar  to  each  district.  Bafwa  may  be  a  softening  of 
Bakiva,  which  means  'people.' 

"  Much  of  what  follows  on  the  Basoko  is  evidently  extracted  by  Grenfell  from 
some  Belgian  report.    {\\.  H.  J.) 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES 


355 


huge  paddle  ;  or  else  they  are  mending  fishing-nets,  fashioning  floats  of 
light  wood  and  hooks,  repairing  their  bow-nets,  or  adzing  the  sides  of  a 
hollowed  log  which  is  to  become  a  canoe.  The  freeman  Musoko,  however, 
is  often  stretched  on  a  couch  in  the  shade,  or  lying  propped  on  the 
movable  bed  which  is  in  use  in  these  districts. 

"  The  women  wear  a  small  loin-cloth  of  a  hand's  breadth  made  of 
plaited  material,  suspended  from  a  girdle  or  worn  as  a  small  apron. 
They  are  good  mothers  and  generally  looked  up  to  by  their  husbands, 
who  do  not  overburden  them  with  excessive  work,  and  treat  them  well. 

"  Their  tatuing  is  highly  characteristic,  and  almost  entirely  confined 
to  the  face  ;  it  is  composed  of  large  dots  bordering  the  lips  in  parallel 


195.  BASOKO  PEOPLE 


lines  and  covering  the  chin  as  well  as  the  brow.  The  eyelashes  and 
hairs  of  the  eyebrows  are  carefully  plucked  out. 

"The  outer  margin  of  the  ear  is  pierced  by  six,  seven,  or  eight  holes, 
into  which  are  inserted  cords  as  thick  as  the  finger  and  sometimes  an 
elephant  hair  strung  with  beads,  terminated  at  both  extremities  by  thick 
knots.  The  temples  and  brows  are  shaved  to  the  line  of  the  ears. 
With  some  of  them,  the  remaining  hair  is  formed  into  a  few  flat  plaits 
which  are  pulled  forward  towards  the  face,  each  terminating  on  the  neck 
in  a  wisp  of  four  to  six  inches  long. 

"  The  forest  races  behind  the  Basoko  wear  at  the  top  of  the  forehead 
a  vertical  plait  of  six  to  eight  inches,  crowned  by  a  tuft  of  red  river- 
hog's  bristles.  They  are  further  decorated  with  an  ornament  of  this  kind 
over  each  ear. 


356   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


"  To  give  evidence  of  his  goodwill,  the  Musoko  sets  his  spear  in  the 
ground  and  lays  down  his  shield.  In  giving  you  his  hand,  he  rubs  the 
tip  of  your  fingers,  then  snaps  his  thumb  against  his  fingers. 

"  TheBasoko  work  iron  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  fashioning  the  rough 
spear-heads  which  are  still  used  as  currency  on  the  north-eastern  Congo. 

"  They  use  copper  to  make  beads  and  ornaments,  and  to  decorate 
their  weapons.  They  also  manufacture  shields,  baskets,  very  strong 
mats,  and  nets  for  which  the  natives  of  the  interior  provide  them  with 
raw  material,  by  selling  prepared  fibres  and  string.  The  Basoko  cloth 
is  principally  made  of  the  bark  or  bast  of  fig  trees,  beaten  with  a  mallet. 
They  prepare  their  food  in  earthenware  vessels.  Potter's  clay  is  found 
everywhere  in  their  neighbourhood  and  is  shaped  by  the  women,  who 
show  great  skill  in  this  work. 

"  The  people  in  the  basin  of  the  Menena-Lulu  River,  an  affluent 
which  joins  the  Aruwimi  near  its  mouth,  are  all  Bantu  in  lan- 
guage. They  are — ascending  from  the  Congo  north-eastward — the 
Baja?ide,  Mabenja,  and  Magboro,  the  last-named  extending  to  the 
Aruwimi.  The  countiy  of  the  Mabenja  is  distinguished  from  other 
districts  by  the  number,  beauty,  and  cleanliness  of  the  villages. 
The  houses  are  round  with  a  conical  roof,  regularly  placed.  At  the 
centre  of  each  collection  stands  a  rectangular  building  where  the  inhabi- 
tants meet  together  during  the  day  in  order  to  talk,  play,  or  discuss 
questions  of  general  interest.  The  public  places,  connecting  roads  and 
neighbourhood,  are  maintained  in  good  condition  with  great  care. 

"  The  Mabenja  hunts  and  tills  the  soil.  He  lives  among  his  family' 
and  travels  little.  He  is  hospitable.  Unlike  the  Bajande  he  is  gentle 
and  peaceable,  and  gets  on  very  well  with  Europeans.  He  is  always 
satisfied  with  what  is  offered  him  and  does  not  beg." 

Here  is  another  note  collected  by  Grenfell  as  to  a  Benja  or 
Mabenja  settlement  on  the  Lulu  River  :— 

"  The  village  of  Masimu  is  composed  of  several  groups  of  dwell- 
ings set  in  a  perfectly  straight  line.  The  houses,  built  of  clay,  are 
round  and  surmounted  by  a  conical  roof  A  very  low  building,  thirty 
or  more  yards  in  length,  seems  to  serve  as  a  meeting-place  or  as  a 
workshop  for  the  manufacture  of  fishing-nets.  In  the  centre  of  the 
village  a  large  open  space,  carefully  preserved,  is  kept  for  dances  and 
sham  fights." 

The  Magboro  speak  the  same  dialect  as  the  Mabenja, 
have  villages  of  the  same  style,  and  adopt  the  same  patterns 
in  cicatrization. 

Behind  the  Basoko  and  Abuja,  the  peoples  of  the  Itimbiri- 
Loika-Rubi  basin,  of  the  north-western  affluents  of  the  Aru- 
wimi, and  of  the  middle  course  of  the  Wele,  east  of  Jabir,  are 
Bantu  in  their  languages,  and  may  be  classed  generically  as 
the  Ababua ;  a  group  which  includes  the  Bangelima,  Abobwa 
(Bubua),  Baiialya,  JMagboro,  Alabcnja  of  the  Aruwimi,  the 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES 


359 


Baganji,  Baluali,  Bengc,  Baieii,  Babandcx,  and  Baduda  of  the 
Rubi  basin,  and  the  Bahaii,  Bakango  Ababua,  and  alHed 
tribes  inhabiting  that  part  of  the  Wele  district  which  is  situ- 
ated between  the  Bomokandi,  Rubi,  and  Aruwimi  ;  or  between 
latitude  i°  40'  and  3°  30'  N.,  and  longitude  23°  to  26°  30'  E. 
These  Bantu-speaking  people  of  the  Ababua  group  at  one  time 
seem  to  have  extended  northwards  to  the  Werre  River,  and 
almost  to  the  verge  of  the  Nile  basin,  but  were  gradually  driven 
south  by  the  invading  A-zande  (Nyamnyam).  "Ababua"  is  a 
Nyamnyam  rendering  of  Babua.  Another  comprehensive 
native  name  for  this  group  is  Babati  (the  Mobati  of  the 
Belgians),  but  Babua  or  Bubua  is  more  widespread.  The 
Ababua  dialects  of  the  Wele  basin  are  closely  allied  to  Stanley's 
"Bakiokwa"  of  Indekaru  on  the  Epulu  (north-west  Ituri)  and 
also  to  some  of  the  north  Congo  and  west  Semliki  tongues. 
Physically  the  Ababua  (and  their  Magboro,  '  Bangelima,' 
Banalya  relations  on  the  middle  Aruwimi)  are  said  to  be  the 
finest  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  Congo.  They  are  tall  and  slim, 
but  their  endurance  does  not  appear  to  be  very  great.  They  are 
naturally  hospitable,  and  are  distinguished  by  a  great  love  of 
freedom,  but  the  fear  of  losing  their  independence  makes  them 
suspicious  of  strangers.  This  characteristic  is  justified  by 
their  history,  since  they  have  lost,  in  wars  with  the  A-zande, 
a  great  part  of  their  territory.^ 

Throuorhout  these  northern  territories  of  the  Conoo  it  mioht 
be  observed  (in  examining  a  careful  map)  how  many  place, 
river,  and  even  tribal  names  are  Bantu  in  word-formation,  even 
when  the  race  inhabiting  the  district  is  distinctly  non-Bantu  in 
speech.  Doubtless  this  is  due  to  Bantu  peoples  having  at  one 
time  inhabited  the  northernmost  parts  of  the  Congo  basin,  from 
which  stroncrer  neoroid  races  from  the  Sudan  have  driven  them 
south,  east,  and  west. 

The  lands  on  either  side  of  the  Mongala  River  [below  the 
falls  and  the  junction  of  the  Dua,  Ebola,  and  Ibanza]  are  peopled 
by  Bantu  tribes  (tall,  stalwart  folk)  related  to  the  Bangala,  and 
styled  Buj'a,  Bwela,  Mabali,  and  Akida.  They  speak  dialects  of 
a  group  called  "  Ngombe  "  by  W.  H.  Stapleton,  which  is  closely 
related  to  Ngala,  Bangi,  Poto,  and  other  north  Congo  tongues. 
North  of  the  Businga  Falls  of  the  Mongala  the  territory  is 
occupied  by  a  tribe  obviously  non-Bantu — the  (so-called)  Mong- 
wandi.  They  inhabit  the  country  covered  by  the  fan-like  basin 
of  the  Mono-ala.   Their  lanouage  offers  distinct  analoQ-ies  to  that 

See  Professor  Halkin's  (Jiie/qi/es  pciiplades  du  district  dc  I'Uele,  published  at 
Liege  in  1907. 


36o   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


of  the  Sango,  farther  north  ;  and  this  warhke  tribe  ma)^  also  be 
connected  with  the  Banza  people,  so  extolled  by  Belgian  and 
British  explorers  for  their  physical  beauty  and  high  civilization. 
The  Banza  occupy  the  territories  between  the  Mongala  basin  and 
the  eastern  bank  of  the  Mubangi,  especially  the  valley  of  the  Lua 
River.  Their  range  extends  northwards  almost  to  the  northern 
Mubangi.  Between  the  Mongwandi  and  the  Bantu  people  of  the 
Rubi  River  (behind  the  riverain  Bapoto  and  Buja)  are  the  non- 
Bantu  Ndoiiga  or  Bondoiiga.    Linguistically  this  tribe  is  nncon- 


197.  EXAMPLES  OF  THE  MONGWANDI  TRIBE,  FROM  THE  UPPER  MONGALA  RIVER 
(The  Mongwandi  are  a'lied  to  the  Sango  of  the  Mubangi.) 


nected  with  the  Mongwandi,  but  offers  considerable  affinities  to 
the  Bamanga  of  the  Lindi  valley  and  Stanley  Falls. 

The  Banza  country  is  magnificently  fertile  and  the  people^ 
occupying  it  are  one  of  the  finest  negro  races  of  the  Congo. 
Unless  they  are  killed  out  by  sleeping  sickness  they  should  play 
a  notable  part  in  the  agricultural  development  of  this  region. 

The  following  notes  on  the  Banza  were  compiled  by  Torday 
from  Belcrian  information:  — 

o 

"  The  Banza  is  a  clever  smith  :  it  is  he  who  makes  lance?,  hoes, 
and  knives  for  the  surrounding  districts.    But  where  he  excels  is  in  the 

^  From  the  linguistic  information  collected  by  Grenfell  and  Stapleton  [and  the 
present  writer],  it  would  seem  as  though  the  Banza  were  related  linguistically  to  the 
Mundu  of  the  Bahr-al-Ghazal  (see  page  363). 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES 


manufacture  of  iron  bells,  real  marvels  of  finish  and  sonority.  These 
bells  have  such  a  far-reaching  repute  that  they  are  sometimes  purchased 
by  a  small  tusk  of  ivory  or  a  young  slave. 

"  The  men  are  sober,  brave,  thrifty,  and  nearly  always  monogamous. 
Their  women  are  modest  and  respected.  Very  little  regard  is  had  for 
clothing,  though  the  Sudanese  drawers  are  coming  into  fashion 
amongst  the  men.  The  Banza  are  sharply  distinguished  from  other 
Congo  tribes  by  the  interest  the  men  take  in  agriculture.  Ordinarily 
among  the  Congo  negroes  the  men  disdain  work  in  the  fields,  which 
they  consider  exclusively  the  province  of  women  and  debasing  to  men. 
But  the  male  Ban/.a  takes  pride  in  the  number,  size,  and  management 
of  his  plantations.  His  fields  are  laid  out  in  a  regular  manner.  He 
begins  by  a  vast  square  of  cleared  ground.  Each  seed  plot  is  circular, 
and  surrounded  by  a  broad  ring  of  banana  trees.  Inside  this  the  Banza 
plants  in  long  rows  high-stalked  millet,  and  between  these  stalks 
kidney  beans.  He  knows  that  the  millet  will  preserve  the  haricot, 
covered  by  its  protecting  shade,  from  the  destructive  heat  of  the  sun, 


198.  A  TOM-TOM  DRUM  FROM  THE  BAI.OI  COUNTRY,  LOWER  KtUBANGI 


and  furthermore  that  the  haricot  will  twine  itself  at  its  will  round  this 
same  stalk  of  its  double  benefactor. 

"  Moreover,  he  divides  his  diligent  care  among  the  maize,  the  sweet 
potato,  yam,  plantain-banana,  small  sweet  banana,  arachis,  and  manioc, 
this  last  in  small  quantity.  The  elais  palm  tree  being  rare  in  these 
countries,  the  Banza  people  supply  the  wanted  oil  by  cultivating  the 
sesamum  plant,  the  seeds  of  which  supply  them  with  an  excellent  oil 
for  cooking  purposes. 

"Tobacco,  cultivated  only  to  the  amount  required,  grows  in 
abundance,  and  is  of  splendid  quality.  But  here  the  Banza  is  betrayed 
by  a  want  of  knowledge  that  not  all  his  zeal  can  replace.  Ignoring 
the  right  way  to  cure  and  dry  the  fragrant  leaves,  he  holds  them  on 
drumsticks  before  the  flame  of  a  hot  fire.  When  dry,  or  rather 
blackened,  his  tobacco  has  the  appearance  of  China  tea,  and  is  wrapped 
in  rolls  of  palm  leaf,  bound  like  a  sausage,  and  hung  up  covered  with 
charcoal  and  without  aroma  on  the  inside  vault  of  his  dwelling. 

"  The  ndongo  or  maize  beer  and  juigo,  a  kind  of  mead  obtained  by 
steeping  small,  very  acidulated  green  leaves  in  honey  and  water, 
constitute  the  indigenous  Banza  drinks.  As  good  to  taste  as  it  is 
refreshing,7>«^£>  gives  him  who  abuses  it  a  terrible  colic,  but  it  does  not 
intoxicate. 


362   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


"Agriculture  requires  cattle-breeding,  and  the  Banza  who  does  not 
trust  exclusivel}'  to  hunting  for  a  supply  of  meat  possesses,  besides 
innumerable  poultry,  splendid  herds  of  goats  whose  immense  size  and 
savoury  flesh  testify  to  the  precaution  which  has  been  taken  in 
emasculating  numbers  of  the  males. 

"  In  short,  the  clean  and  comfortable  dwellings,  respectable  morals, 
and  the  relative  comfort  of  life  that  characterize  the  Banza  people 
entitle  them  to  the  most  considerate  treatment  at  the  hands  of  those 
Europeans  whom  Fate  has  placed  in  control  over  this  fine  country." 


The  Baloi  people  of  the  extreme  lower  Mubangi  have 
already  been  alluded  to  in  previous  chapters.  They  and  the 
people  of  the  Ngiri  River  are  probably  connected  in  origin  with 


199.  CHRVSICHTHVS  ORNATUS,  A  FISH  OF  THE  MUBAXGI  AND  NORTHERN  CONGO 
Collected  by  Rev.  J.  H.  Weeks,  B.M.S. 

the  "  Bangala "  peoples,  and  of  course  speak  Bantu  dialects. 
Some  of  the  Noonibe  tribes  are  said  to  extend  their  rang-e  to 
the  reo-ion  between  the  Mubangi  and  Ngiri, 

Viscount  Mountmorres  describes  the  population  of  the  lower 
Mubangi  above  Imese  as  very  mixed,  some  villages  being 
"  Zongo "  and  others  "  Bonjo."  According  to  the  Belgian 
authorities,  Bonjo  is  a  general  name  given  to  the  more  or  less 
Bantu  tribes  on  the  west  side  of  the  lower  Mubangi.  On  the 
left  or  east  bank  of  the  Mubangi,  between  the  confluence  of  the 
Lua  River  and  the  vicinity  of  the  Ngiri,  the  predominant  tribe 
(also  Bantu)  is  called  Dongo  or  Longo  [their  country  is  entitled 
Bii/ongo^.  The  "  Zongo"  or  Bazembi  people  living  to  the  west 
of  the  lower  Mubangi  in  the  valley  of  the  Lobai  River  are 
described  by  Mountmorres  as  small  of  stature  and  ravaged  by 
yaws,  craw-craw,  and  other  unpleasant  diseases.    They  are 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES 


363 


largely  a  riverain  race,  depending  on  fisheries  for  their  li\'ing', 
though  they  also  make  pottery  out  of  the  mud  of  the  river  and 
carry  on  a  poor  agriculture.  They  have  been  much  harried  in 
former  years  by  the  Banza,  Bonjo,  and  Dongo,  who  raided  their 
villaoes  and  carried  them  off  as  slaves  to  be  sold  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Mubangi  and  on  Lake  Ntomba. 

The  "  Bonjo"  and  "  Dongo"  appear  [according  to  Mount- 
morres]  to  be  the  same  people,  and  are  a  hybrid  race  between 
the  Forest  negroes  and  the  more  northern  people  of  the  plains. 
They  are  a  splendid,  intelligent,  and  fearless  race,  hardy,  of  fine 
physique,  and  singularly  free  from  disease.  They  practise 
circumcision.  Their  towns  are  large  and  admirably  built. 
Mountmorres  cites  instances  of  remarkable  prolificness.  A 
family  consisting  of  one  husband,  twenty  wives,  and  eighty 
children  is  by  no  means  a  rarity.  They  are  convinced  canni- 
bals, preferring  human  flesh  to  all  other  meat. 

It  has  been  already  recorded  that  when  Grenfell  in  1885 
passed  beyond  3°  2'  N.  Lat.  about  the  confluence  of  the  River 
Lobai,  he  encountered  a  folk  whose  language  sounded  strange 
in  his  ears.  The  vocabulary  he  recorded  showed  that  it  was  no 
Bantu  dialect.  W.  H.  Stapleton  also  visited  these  people  in 
1897  and  took  down  another  list  of  words.  He  called  the 
language  tentatively  Mpombo.  Neither  he  nor  Grenfell  could 
form  any  theory  as  to  the  relationship  of  "  Mpombo."  It  was 
reserved  for  the  present  writer  to  solve  this  enigma. 

In  the  extreme  north-east  of  the  Congo  State,  on  the 
frontiers  of  the  Lado  enclave,  there  is  a  relatively  small  tribe 
known  as  the  Mundu.  It  inhabits  the  south-eastern  part 
of  the  Nyamnyam  country,  between  3°  30'  and  5°  N.  Lat. 
Possibly  tribes  allied  to  the  Mundu  may  be  found  in  patches 
through  the  Nyamnyam  domain  north  of  the  Wele  River  and 
in  the  direction  of  the  Mbomu.  The  present  writer  found 
there  were  Mundu  soldiers  in  the  ranks  of  the  native  forces 
of  Uganda  originally  recruited  by  Emin  Pasha.  He  collected 
a  vocabulary  from  them  which  is  published  in  the  Ugmida 
Protectorate.  Comparing  all  these  vocabularies  with  the  un- 
classified Mpombo  of  the  lower  Mubangi  (seven  hundred  miles 
west  of  Mundu-land),  the  interesting  discovery  was  made  that 
the  Mundu  language  corresponded  with  Mpombo  to  a  remark- 
able degree.  As  will  be  seen  in  the  chapter  on  languages,  the 
words  collected  by  these  two  missionaries  in  that  district  agree 
very  closely  with  the  vocabulary  written  down  by  the  present 
writer  from  natives  of  the  Mundu  district  within  the  Nile  water- 
shed, seven  hundred  miles  to  the  eastward.     Further,  there  are 


364   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


indications,  faint  but  impressive,  that  this  language  type  is  con- 
nected with  the  Bamanga  of  Stanley  Falls,  and  possibly  with 
some  of  the  other  languages  spoken  along  the  Wele-Mubangi. 
There  may  even  be  a  far-distant  linguistic  connection  between 
the  Manbettu,  Madi,  Lendu,  Momvu,  Ndonga,  Bamanga, 
Mundu,  and  the  western  Mubangi  groups  (Mpombo),  and 
between  these  again  and  the  other  lanouaoes  of  the  Wele- 
Makua  and  Mbomu  rivers.  It  is  presumed,  but  not  yet  certain, 
that  the  language  of  the  Banza  people  is  similar  to  Mpombo. 

The  Madi  group  of  the  Mountain  Nile  and  the  Lado 
enclave  (Madi,  Logbwari,  Abukaya,  and,  in  the  far  west,  Mitu) 
enters  the  Congo  basin  near  the  sources  of  the  Wele  and  of 
the  Mbomu.  It  also  reappears  in  a  remarkable  enclave  on 
the  north  side  of  the  Wele  River,  between  the  Wele  and  the 
Werre,  on  either  side  of  Long.  27°.  The  range  of  the 
Madi  people  (or  language,  at  any  rate)  is  as  remarkable  as  that 
of  the  Mundu-Mpombo,  just  noticed — from  the  Asua  River  in 
Long.  32°  20'  to  the  Wele  River  in  Long.  26°  30'.  The  well- 
marked  Madi  type  of  language  has  faint  affinities  with  the 
Bantu,  and  also  with  the  Mafibettu,  Mundu,  Momvu,  and 
Lendu  groups.  The  Madi  negroes  are  tall,  well  built,  but  of 
pronounced  negro  type. 

The  intrusive  Nyamnyain  [Makarka,  Azande)  extend 
from  the  vicinity  of  the  Nile  at  Dufile  right  across  and  along 
the  basin  of  the  Wele-Mubangi,  as  far  eastwards  as  the  con- 
fluence between  that  river  and  the  Mbomu.  They  may  even 
be  connected  linguistically  with  the  Nsakara  that  dominate  the 
western  Mbomu  and  the  reg-ions  of  the  northern  Mubang-i. 
The  affinities  of  the  Makarka  or  Nyamnyam  speech  are,  like 
those  of  the  Manbettu,  one  of  Central  Africa's  many  unsolved 
riddles.  Here  and  there  seem  to  be  elusive  glimpses  of  a  con- 
nection between  the  Nyamnyam  dialects  and  the  Mundu- 
Mpombo  group  already  referred  to,  but  our  information  on 
both  speech-families  is  insufficient  for  a  decisive  opinion.  In 
physical  characteristics,  as  numerous  travellers  point  out,  the 
Nyamnyam  though  mixed  in  type  are  negroid  rather  than 
negro.  They  resemble  in  face  and  body  some  of  the  hand- 
somer Bantu  negroes,  and  recall  in  their  customs  and  features 
the  Hamite  (Hima)  aristocracies  of  Uganda  and  Unyoro. 
Their  culture  and  civilization  have  been  largely  influenced  by 
the  Nilotic  races.  As  well  as  the  northern  part  of  the  Congo 
Free  State,  they  inhabit  a  great  deal  of  the  Bahr-al-Ghazal 
region  of  the  Egyptian  Sudan.  There  are  traces  there  of 
ancient  Egyptian  influence  in  arts,  manufactures,  and  beliefs. 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES  365 


The  Nyamnyam^  inhabiting  the  northern  parts  of  the 
Congo  Free  State  are  divided  into  the  following  groups  (west 
to  east)  :  A-banjia,  A-zande,  A-barambo,  and  Makarka.^ 

West  of  the  Nyamnyam  country — between  the  Mbomu 
and  the  Koto — is  the  domain  of  the  powerful  Nsakara  tribe,  the 
sultan  of  which  has  his  name-place  and  capital  at  Bangaso. 
The  Nsakara  impinge  somewhat  on  the  territories  of  the 
Abanjia  section  of  the  Nyamnyam,  to  the  south  of  the 
western  Mbomu. 

"  The  primary  ancestors  of  Sultan  Bangaso  (Beringa  and  his  father, 
Banga)  were  unimportant  chieftains  settled  on  the  Mbomu,  Bali,  and 
Zako.  Their  descendant,  Boendi,  grandfather  of  the  actual  chief,  was 
the  real  founder  of  the  dynasty  and  kingdom  such  as  it  exists  at  the 
present  time.  He  it  was  who,  with  his  four  sons,  Bali,  Badoka,  Ganda, 
and  Mada,  conquered  nearly  the  whole  of  the  country  watered  by  the 
Mbomu  and  its  tributaries,  and  established  the  Nsakara  tribe  there. 

"  Bangaso,  Bali's  son,  a  man  of  an  intelligence  and  energy  rarely 
equalled,  succeeded  in  getting  all  the  power  into  his  firm  hand,  and 
adding  some  conquests  to  those  of  his  grandfather,  Boendi,  definitively 
created  the  empire  as  we  know  it  to-day. 

"The  actual  sultan  practises  'self-government'  in  the  widest  sense. 
All  important  decisions  are  settled  by  him.  Trustworthy  couriers 
acquaint  him  regularly  at  all  hours  of  the  day  with  all  that  is  happening 
in  the  country. 

"  The  means  he  employs  of  asserting  his  authority  are  sometimes 
cruel,  but  this  severity,  often  necessary  with  such  subjects  as  are  under 
his  rule,  is  tempered  by  a  great  depth  of  natural  kindness.  He  attends 
to  everything  himself,  and  never  forgets  anything  of  importance.  Justice 
is  administered  by  the  sultan  himself,  who,  however,  leaves  unimportant 
cases  to  his  chiefs  ;  but  whenever  there  is  question  of  a  free  man  or  of  a 
crime  of  some  gravity  the  accused  must  appear  before  Bangaso  himself. 

"  Polygamy  is  practised  on  an  extensive  scale.  Bangaso  sets  the 
example  himself ;  he  has  about  fifteen  hundred  wives,  who  have  borne 
him  sixty  children.  As  soon  as  his  sons  are  of  an  age  to  command 
they  are  sent  to  different  parts  of  the  country.  It  is,  to  a  certain  extent, 
due  to  them  that  the  sultan  maintains  his  authority  and  is  kept  so  well 
informed  of  all  that  happens  in  his  kingdom. 

"The  Nsakara,  who  dominate  all  the  other  tribes  to  the  west  and 
north,  employ  the  greater  part  of  their  time  in  hunting  and  in  war. 
Some  of  them,  in  a  small  way,  devote  themselves  to  trade :  they  are 
smiths,  basket-makers,  potters,  etc.  The  women  cultivate  the  land, 
carry  burdens,  and  attend  to  all  household  duties.  These  natives  are 
generally  fairly  indolent.  Slavery  naturally  exists  throughout  these 
regions,  but  it  is  tempered  by  a  law  forbidding  a  master  to  kill  his  slave. 

'  This  generic  name  is  derived  from  a  cant  term  of  the  Bantu  borderland  mean- 
ing "  meat."  The  Sudanese  slave-traders  accused  the  Nyamnyam  cannibals  of  always 
wanting  human  flesh. 

^  This  word  is  sometimes  written  Makaraka  or  Makraka.  To  the  present  writer 
it  always  sounds  as  Makarka  with  the  "  r  "  strongly  trilled. 


366   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Bangaso  has  further  the  right  to  emancipate  a  slave  and  to  make  of  him 
a  free  man,  for  warHke  feats  or  eminent  services. 

"A  child  born  of  a  free  man  and  a  slave  is  free.  He  receives,  like 
all  the  Nsakara,  at  a  certain  age  (about  sixteen)  the  distinctive  mark  of 
the  race — that  is,  four  rows  of  lines  which  cross  each  other,  tatued  hori- 
zontally across  the  forehead."^ 

Amongst  the  Nsakara  live  the  Dendi  people,  described  by 
Lord  Mountmorres  as  "lean,  ragged-looking-,  and  wholly  want- 
ing in  the  physical  beauty  of  the  Banza  people  farther  west." 
The  Dendi  men  as  a  rule  wear  a  thin,  long  beard  and  an 
abundant  moustache. 

North-west  of  the  Nsakara  and  the  Azande  group  of  the 
Nyamnyam  is  the  relatively  vast  country  inhabited  by  the 
Banda  negroes,  a  region  vaguely  known  to  geography  as  Dar 
Banda  many  years  before  the  Congo  basin  was  discovered.  It 
was  the  resort  of  Arab  or  Nubian  slave-traders  for  several 
centuries,  who  penetrated  hither  from  Wadai,  Darfur,  and 
Bagirmi.  Westwards  of  the  Banda  and  the  Nsakara,  within 
the  basin  of  the  Mubangi,  there  are  many  tribes  of  unsettled 
affinities  \_Ngizi,  Dakoa,  Ngapit,  Lingtuisi,  and  Linga\  Some- 
times these,  like  the  group  of  people  called  Sango  on  the  south 
bank  of  the  central  Mubangi,  are  fine,  handsome  types  of 
neoToes  with  intellioent  faces,  but  without  strong  evidence  of 
Caucasian  intermixture.  Others  again  are  of  the  Forest  Negro 
type — long-armed,  short-legged,  sturdy,  ugly,  prognathous. 
The  Linguasi  and  Linga  are  said  by  Captain  Boyd  Alexander 
to  be  akin  to  the  Banda. 

In  the  southern  plain  of  the  north-western  Mubangi,  the 
regrion  sometimes  known  as  Mokwancjai,  all  the  riverside 
people  belong  (it  is  said)  to  one  and  the  same  race,  which  under 
the  name  of  Bongo  is  spread  through  vast  territories  to  the 
south  of  the  Mubangi.  The  generic  name  for  this  group  is  not 
known.  Bongo  seems  to  mean  "the  left  bank"  (of  a  river). 
The  people  who  dwell  beside  water  are  said  to  call  themselves, 
in  a  general  way,  Wa-tct  (from  "  wa,"  people,  and  "tet,"  river), 
and  the  natives  of  the  interior  Wagigi  (from  "  wa,"  people,  and 
"gigi,"  dry  land).  The  Bwajiri,  A-bodo,  A-bira^  and  Gembele 
are  "Wa-tet";  the  Sango,  on  the  other  hand,  are  "Wagigi." 
[Lord  Mountmorres  renders  these  terms  respectively  as  IVa-ie 
and  Wangene.  It  should  be  mentioned  that  they  seem  entirely 
foreign  in  root  and  syntax  to  the  Sango  language.] 

"  The  term  '  Wagigi '  is,  however,  little  used.  The  negroes  employ 
by  preference  the  word  Bongo,  which  means  literally  '  left  bank,'  but 

'  Torday's  notes. 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES 


367 


which  applied  to  persons  is  constantly  used  to  describe  the  great  people 
established  on  the  left  bank  of  the  VVele-Mubangi  from  the  Mbomu 
confluence  to  the  Bwaka  country.    All  these  natives,  Wa-tet  and  Sango, 
speak  the  same  language  (?),  have  the  same  customs,  the  same  tatuings, 
and  the  same  weapons.    They  can  only  be  distinguished  by  their  mode 
of  life.    The  Wa-tet  show  to  the  highest  degree  the  character  of  people 
who  dwell  by  the  river.    Admirable  with  the  canoe,  and  clever  fishers, 
they  obtain  a  large  part  of  their  sustenance  from  the  fish  which  they 
catch,  and  only  seek  to  secure  the  balance  by  means  of  trade.  They 
wear  as  their  characteristic  tatuing  a  line  of  dots  starting  from  the 
occiput  and  ending  at  the  nose.    These  blisters  have  more  or  less  space 
between  them  and 
reach  the  size  of  a  pea. 
Though  exhibiting 
many   variations,  the 
head  -  dress   of  these 
natives  usually  follows 
one  type.    The  hair  is 
shaved,  or  cut  short  on 
the  triangular  surface 
comprised  between  the 
temples  and  the  apex 
of  the  head.    On  the 
remainder  of  the  head 
it  is  long  and  dressed  in 
shells  or  little  twists,  deco- 
rated with  beads  or  other  orna- 
ments according  to  fashion.  The 
men  and  women  have  the  same 
head-dress.    One  sometimes  meets 
with  young  girls  who  wear  their  hair 
very  long.    They  obtain  this  result  by 
combining  with  their  own  hair  that  of 
some  of  their  ancestors,  or  more  simply  by 

,         •  -^1  I  r  11    ^  ■  200.  A  HARP  FROM  THE  SANGO 

prolongmg  It  With  a  number  of  small  strmgs.       people  of  vako.m.v,  on 
In  the  former  case,  the  hair  appears  so       the  upper  mubangi 
natural  that  in  earlier  years  Europeans 

have  been  deceived  by  these  false  additions.  In  the  latter  case,  it 
assumes  such  proportions  that  it  becomes  necessary  to  roll  it  in  a 
great  ball  of  ten  or  twelve  inches  in  diameter.  This  ornament  then 
becomes  a  veritable  burden,  and  nothing  could  be  more  ridiculous 
than  to  see  a  young,  pretty  girl  walking  laden  with  this  heavy  head- 
dress tied  up  with  a  scarf. 

"Commandant  Vangele  measured  in  1887  one  of  these  fabrics  of 
false  hair,  which,  bound  together  in  a  single  tress,  was  no  less  than 
two  yards  long. 

"The  VVa-tet  and  Sango  do  not  pluck  hair  from  their  bodies,  but 
they  pull  out  their  eyelashes  ;  they  likewise  commonly  shave  their  eye- 
brows, so  that  new  ones  may  be  traced  on  the  brow  with  charcoal. 
These  natives  have  little  beard  and  do  not  wear  a  moustache.  Though 
the  women  go  nude  and  the  men  have  for  clothing  only  a  bark  loin- 


368   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


cloth,  they  worship  ornaments  of  every  kind.  Iron,  copper,  brass,  tin, 
ivory,  and  beads  of  all  colours  serve  them  for  the  manufacture  of  an 
infinite  variety  of  rings,  bracelets,  collars,  earrings,  pins,  and  amulets 
with  which  they  cover  themselves.  They  are  fond  of  music  and  play 
on  harps  that  are  very  Egyptian  in  appearance.  Their  weapons  are 
the  spear  and  shield.  In  addition  they  usually  carry  with  them  a  knife 
enclosed  in  a  sheath  of  antelope  skin,  decorated  with  iron  or  copper 
ornaments. 

"  The  Bongo  peoples  are  big  and  muscular.  They  have  small  hands 
and  feet.  Their  faces,  which  are  open  and  intelligent,  preserve  the 
characteristic  traits  of  the  negro,  but  are  not  ugly.  In  the  Bwajiri 
group,  which  is  the  most  mixed,  we  even  meet  with  many  who  have  an 
aquiline,  though  short,  nose  and  thin  lips.  The  Sango  are  a  comely 
people,  more  Sudanese  in  appearance  than  the  average  Bantu  type.^ 

"  The  Wa-tet  scarcely  possess  any  political  organization.  Each 
village  or  group  of  villages  recognizes  a  chief,  whose  powers  are  little 
more  than  those  of  an  intermediary  agent  of  the  community.  His 
authority  is  only  exercised  so  far  as  it  accords  with  the  will  of  the 
immense  majority. 

"  Living  chiefly  on  fishing,  these  people  change  their  abode  with 
astonishing  ease.  Like  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  Mubangi,  they  are 
polygamous  and  cannibals. 

"It  is  their  custom  to  gather  together  in  large  villages  of  one  to 
three  hundred  huts,  that  is  to  say  about  three  hundred  to  a  thousand 
souls.  Their  houses,  of  conical  formation,  are  fifteen  to  twenty-one  feet 
high,  and  nine  to  fifteen  feet  in  diameter.  They  are  composed  of  a 
circular  wall  of  clay  two  feet  to  two  feet  eight  inches  in  height,  crowned 
by  a  grass  roof 

"  The  Wa-tet  scarcely  occupy  themselves  at  all  with  cultivation. 
With  the  product  of  their  fishing  they  buy  from  the  people  of  the 
interior  manioc,  bananas,  and  other  food  necessary  for  their  support. 
Still,  they  plant  a  sufficient  quantity  of  maize  around  their  villages. 

"  All  the  riverside  people  of  the  upper  Mubangi  manufacture  great 
quantities  of  iron,  which  they  distribute  far  and  wide.  The  A-bodo, 
the  A-bira,  and  the  Gembele  established  at  the  confluence  of  the 
Mbomu  and  the  Wele  and  below  the  Mbomu  confluence  live  chiefly 
by  this  industry.  Although  they  possess  copper,  the  natives  have  a 
preference  for  brass,  which  has  been  introduced  as  a  medium  of 
exchange  by  Europeans.  That  which  is  most  in  demand,  however,  is 
glass  ware,  in  the  form  of  beads  of  different  hues. 

"  Barter  among  the  natives  is  carried  on  at  the  markets,  gatherings 
which  take  place  periodically  near  some  big  village.  The  Sango  tribes 
carry  thither  manioc,  bananas,  charcoal,  poles  for  propelling  boats, 
ropes,  and  threads  for  making  nets ;  also  manufactured  iron  weapons, 
implements,  and  basket-work  shields.  The  Wa-tet,  on  the  other  hand, 
sell  iron,  fish,  native  salt,  beads,  and  other  products  bought  in  distant 
lands. 

"  The  interior  Bongo  (Sango)  only  differ  from  the  Wa-tet  in  their 
mode  of  life.  The  high-lying  region  which  they  inhabit  to  the  south 
of  the  Mubangi  is  covered  by  the  dense  forest  already  described.  The 

'  '  Veritable  giants,  wonderful  water  men.''    (Boyd  Alexander.) 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES 


369 


necessities  of  life  have  compelled  these  natives  to  gather  together  in 
immense  villages,  separated  from  one  another  by  considerable  stretches 
of  uninhabited  country.  In  this  way,  after  having  crossed  a  district 
comprising  eighteen  hundred  to  two  thousand  huts  (five  to  six  thousand 
souls)  one  may  travel  through  primeval  forest  for  several  days  without 
meeting  a  single  group  of  habitations. 

"  The  Bongo  villages  are  fortified  by  felled  timber,  pits,  or  moats. 
The  natives  of  the  interior  have  powerful  chiefs,  whose  authority  is  more 
fully  recognized  than  it  is  among  the  Wa-tet  or  people  of  the  river. 

"  Not  far  from  the  villages  stretch  the  plantations.  At  the  cost  of 
enormous  labour  great  clearings  are  opened  in  the  forest.  Everything 
is  beaten  down  and  cut 
short.  Next,  fire  burns 
up  the  leaves  and  small 
dry  wood.  The  men 
do  this  preliminary 
work.  Then  the  women 
and  slaves  dig  up  the 
ground,  roughly  cleanse 
the  soil,  setting  them- 
selves particularly  to 
the  task  of  getting  rid 
of  parasitic  growths. 
After  this  they  plant 
pell-mell  and  almost  at 
the  same  time  maize, 
manioc,  bananas, 
pumpkins,  and  other 
vegetables,  a  reason- 
able space  being  left 
between  the  plants. 
The  plantation  thus 
produces  in  succession 
crops  of  maize,  vege- 
tables, then  bananas, 
and  finally  manioc. 

"  The  Bongo  peo- 
ples do  not  weed  their  fields  except  during  the  first  half  of  the 
year  for  the  crops  of  maize  and  vegetables.  At  the  end  of  five  or  six 
months,  banana  trees  and  manioc  plants  struggle  against  the  weeds 
which  grow  afresh  without  ceasing,  and  they  are  with  difficulty 
disentangled  from  time  to  time.  These  plantations,  of  neglected 
appearance,  bristling  with  tree  trunks  and  obstructing  every  step  by  all 
kinds  of  remains,  give  a  stranger  the  feeling  of  a  work  of  giants,  care- 
less of  the  petty  details  of  vegetation.  By  this  method,  the  Bongo 
obtain  the  maximum  of  produce  and  are  lavishly  rewarded  for  their 
toil.  They  never  plant  in  natural  clearings  ;  the  soil  there  is  not  rich 
enough. 

"  The  Bongo  are  hunters  too.  They  journey  one  or  two  days' 
distance  from  their  villages,  form  camps  in  the  forest,  and  beat  the 
country.    They  track  small  game,  antelopes,  and  wild  pig,  which  they 

I.  —  2  B 


201.  head  of  a  male  black  forest  pig 
(hylochcerus) 


370   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


drive  into  nets.  Large  game,  like  the  elephant,  are  caught  in  pits  or 
trenches  into  which  they  are  made  to  fall,  where  they  injure  themselves 
fatally  on  spears  or  pointed  stakes.  '  ^ 

The  Sango  language  is  absolutely  non-Bantu,  and  is  allied 
to  that  of  the  Mongwandi  (upper  Mongala  River),  but  is  quite 
unconnected  with  the  Mpombo  or  Bamanga,  or  any  other 
known  group. 

While  the  Wa-tet  and  Sango  (with  whom  are  identical 
the  Yakoma,  Blaka,  and  Saka)  dwell  on  the  sonth  of  the 
Mubangi,  the  territories  situated  on  the  north  of  that  river  are 
occupied  by  the  Babu  or  Biibii,  the  Langivasi,  Dambasi,  Ngapu 
(Ngafo),  Alafibwa,  and  Mosokuba.  These  tribes  use  the  same 
form  of  speech  with  only  some  differences  in  the  dialect,  and 
this  language  is  said  to  be  related  to  the  Banda,  much  farther 
north.  Essentially  agriculturists,  they  maintain  a  constant  trade 
with  the  Wa-tet,  who  describe  them  by  the  name  of  Bubu. 

Taller  than  the  Wa-tet,  the  Biibii  has  usually  more  slender 
limbs.  His  face  is  more  inclined  to  be  ugly  and  prognathous  ; 
its  expression  is  distrustful  and  morose,  and  contrasts  with  the 
open  and  joyful  air  of  the  Wa-tet.  His  head  approaches  more 
nearly  to  the  typical  negro  type.  The  tatu  marks,  which  are 
not  very  characteristic,  are  composed  of  three  lines  of  small 
points,  dividing  the  forehead  in  a  vertical  direction.  The 
nostrils  are  frequently  pierced,  and  the  Bubu  wear  in  their  lips 
long  prisms  of  rock  crystal  or  more  often  pieces  of  copal  from 
one  and  a  half  to  two  inches  long.  They  keep  a  peculiar  breed 
of  goats  with  fine,  silky  hair. 

The  weapons  of  these  natives  are  not  of  first-rate  quality  ; 
their  spears  have  but  small  heads  and  their  shields  measure  only 
one  foot  across  by  three  feet  in  length.  They  use  the  bow  and 
arrow  as  w-ell  as  the  "hombash"  or  sword-knife.  The  Bubu 
are  reckoned  poor  hunters.  If  native  accounts  are  to  be 
believed,  the  country  to  the  north  of  the  Mubangi  should  be 
thickly  populated,  but  the  villages  are  probably  divided  into 
small  separate  clusters  of  a  few  huts. 

Apart  from  the  exchange  of  a  few  slaves  and  some  produce 
there  is  no  intercourse  between  the  Wa-tet  and  the  Bubu.  Each 
of  these  nations  preserv'es  its  distinct  characteristics.  Thus,  for 
example,  the  Bubu  cultivate  certain  products,  notably  a  small 
potato  which  is  not  found  on  the  left  bank,  though  it  may  be 
brought  there  by  barter. 

The  Bubu  often  carry  on  a  skirmishing  warfare  with  the 
Wa-tet,  but  they  are  the  natural  enemies  of  the  Nsakara,  who 

1  Torday's  notes  derived  from  Belgian  sources,  and  information  collected  by  Grenfell. 


THE  NORTHERN  TRIBUTARIES  371 


distinguish  them  by  the  name  of  Alanbwa.  HostiHties  be- 
tween the  Nsakara  and  the  Alafibwa  would  be  constant  if 
their  mutual  invasions  were  not  impeded  by  the  River  Koto,  a 
serious  obstacle  which  forms  a  natural  barrier  between  these 
nations. 

Across  the  north-western  Mubangi,  along  its  right  bank, 
mainly,  are  the  Banziri  (Bazere,  Balanga),  whose  southern  limit 
on  the  river  is  the  last  of  the  Grenfell  Falls  at  Zongo.  They 
are  described  by  Lord  Mountmorres  as  of  splendid  physique 
and  very  free  from  disease.  This  writer  considered  them  to 
be  related  to  the  Bantu  group,  in  language  and  customs. 
They  are  probably  semi- Bantu  in  speech  affinities  :  Chevalier 
and  other  French  authorities  consider  that  the  Bansiri,  Ndri, 
Pa-tri,  Be-dri,  Manjia,  and  kindred  tribes  of  the  north-eastern 
section  of  the  Mubangi  basin  are  closely  related  to  the  Baya 
group  of  the  Upper  Sanga.  And  these  last,  we  know,  are 
connected  in  lanouaofe  and  culture  with  the  semi- Bantu  tribes 
of  the  Cameroons  hinterland  and  even  with  the  Fanwe  invaders 
of  the  Gaboon. 

In  fact,  in  this  survey  of  the  northern  tributaries  of  the 
Congo  it  might  be  repeated  that  all  the  human  races  therein 
residing,  with  the  possible  exception  of  the  pygmies,  were 
cannibals  before  European  control  had  been  established,  and 
are  cannibals  now  where  they  have  not  come  under  European 
influence  or  are  not  afraid  of  punishment  for  the  crime.  This 
love  of  human  flesh  characterizes  almost  to  the  same  degree 
the  Maiibettu  and  Azande  of  Hamitic  type,  the  handsome 
Ababua  negroes,  the  stalwart  Bantu  of  the  great  river  courses, 
and  the  ugly  forest-dwelling  negroes  of  the  Aruwimi  and  the 
Monoala. 


202.    SMAI.I,    I  W  IX    KI'.C  Kl'TAt  LIO    I- RDM    I  IIF,   I.DW  K.K 
iMl'l!AN(;i  ;  lil.AC  K,  VARNISHKl)  WI  IH  COHAl, 


CHAPTER  XV 


THE  JOURNEY  TO  THE  UNDISCOVERED  BOURNE 


B 


ETWEEN  1903  and  1906  Grenfell  continued  at 
intervals  his  survey  and  exploration  of  the  main  Congo 
and  its  northern  affluents.  In  1903  he  made  the 
journey  alluded  to  in  chapter  xiii  up  the  Lualaba-Congo  to 
the  Hinde  Cataracts.    But  his  time  was  chiefly  devoted  to 

foundinor  a  new 
station  at  Ya- 

W       .^^^^■■PIIWPIIP>1^K^*'*"<*M"^   lemba,  from 
^^^^^^^  ^^^^^  which  he  hoped 

j^^^^^^^M  to  radiate  influ- 

/^^^^^^^^  ence  in  the  direc- 

tion of  the  Aru- 
wimi.  Hither, 
probably,  he  in- 
tended to  trans- 
f  e  r  his  home 
from  Bolobo,  a 
station  much  too 
far  to  the  west 
to  fit  in  w4th  his 
future  plans  of 
exploration  east- 
wards and  north- 
wards. 

One  of  his 
last  pieces  of  ex- 
ploration in  the 
sense  of  survey 

work  was  the  mapping"  of  the  Bukatulaka  channel  of  the  Congo 
in  the  Bangala  country. 

During  1905  he  seems  once  again  to  have  made  some 
exploration  of  the  Congo  above  Stanley  Palis,  and  to  have 
visited  the  eastern  affluents  of  that  section  ;  but  the  notes  of 
these  journeys  have  been  for  the  most  part  lost,  and  are 
confined  to  a  few  annotations  on  maps.     During  this  year — 

372 


203.  A  PHOTOt;RAPH  OF  GRENFELL,  TAKEN  JANUARY  I906, 
SIX  MONTHS  BEFORE  HIS  DEATH 


JOURNEY  TO  UNDISCOVERED  BOURNE  373 


1905 — his  health  had  been  visibly  failing.  He  felt  very  keenly 
the  refusal  of  the  Conoo  authorities  to  allow  him  to  found 
new  stations  anywhere  to  the  east  of  Stanley  Falls,  either 
on  the  Aruwimi  or  on  the  Congo.  Moreover,  as  the  sturdy 
champion  of  the  Congo  State  down  to  1902,  the  revelations 
of  the  various  Consuls  and  Commissions  respecting  the  mis- 
management of  the  Royal  Domaine,  and  of  certain  territories 
entrusted  to  concessionnaire  companies,  came  as  a  great  shock 
to  his  disinterested  belief  in    the  good  purposes  of  King 


204.    YALEMBA,  HOUSE  WHERE  GRENKELL  LIVED  PRIOR  TO  HIS  DEATH 


Leopold.  He  was  (as  I  think  he  expresses  it  in  a  letter  to  a 
Belgian)  ddsorient^ :  he  did  not  know  in  which  direction  to 
turn  for  the  putting  straight  of  this  Congo  region,  which 
owing  to  the  ravages  of  sleeping  sickness  and  the  mistaken 
policy  of  the  King-Sovereign  was  getting  into  a  deplor- 
able condition  in  its  central  reg^ions  and  alonor  the  main 
course  of  the  river.  His  distress  of  mind  was  the  keener 
because  he  had  conceived  a  oreat  regard  for  certain  Belgian 
officials,  such  as,  for  example,  Commandant  Malfeyt.  He  had 
known  personally  almost  every  Belgian  pioneer  of  note,  and 
had  formed  a  high  opinion  of  the  majority  of  these  men, 
who,  as  he  knew,  often  served  their  king  and  country  most 
disinterestedly  for  very  low  pay. 


374   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


'  '  These  disappointments  and  rebuffs,  as  well  as  the  fatigues 
incidental  to  constant  steamer  journeys  up  and  down  the  Congo 
connected  with  the  mission  work,  prematurely  aged  him. 

In  June  1906  he  was  seized  with  an  unusually  severe  attack 
of  black-water  fever  at  Yalemba.  He  had  no  one  with  him  but 
a  few  native  attendants,  who,  when  they  realized  his  danger, 
transported  him  in  an  unconscious  condition  to  the  State  station 
of  Basoko  ;  and  here,  receiving  medical  attendance  too  late,  he 
died  on  the  ist  of  July  1906.     Here  he  lies  buried,  having 


205.     GREN fell's  grave  AT  BASOKO 


certainly  left  an  imperishable  name  and  fame  in  the  history  of  the 
Congo,  not  only  as  an  explorer  of  the  highest  order,  but  as  one 
of  those  good  and  likeable  men  for  whom  no  one,  black  or  white, 
has  anything  but  praise  to  record.  He  on  his  part  was  a  rare 
exemplification  of  Christian  charity — eager  to  applaud  good 
work  in  others,  looking  everywhere  for  the  good  motive,  chary 
of  blaming  or  condemning  without  conclusive  proof;  absolutely 
incorruptible,  however,  and  no  fool  to  be  easily  gammoned  into 
insipid  acquiescence  with  wrong-doing — whether  it  be  by  a 
steamer-boy,  a  mission  scholar,  a  State  official,  or  a  native 
chief. 


JOURNEY  TO  UNDISCOVERED  BOURNE  375 


In  preparation  for  the  chapters  that  are  to  follow,  it  might 
be  as  well  to  give  here  some  of  the  personal  opinions  of 
Grenfell  on  the  condition  of  the  Congo  State  Territories 
from  1878  to  the  time  of  his  death  in  1906. 

"  It  has  been  given  to  me"  [he  writes  in  June  1904]  "to  enter  upon 
the  thirtieth  year  of  my  African  life.  For  the  first  ten  years  (1874- 
84)^  I  lived  under  native  rule,  and  the  bitter  experiences  of  that  time 
have  burnt  themselves  indelibly  into  my  mind  and  memory.  I  saw  the 
havoc  made  by  the  liquor  traffic  over  wide  stretches  of  the  country, 
where  bottles  of  gin  and  rum  were  the  staple  currency,  and  where  it 


206.  .VN   ARAli  CAMP,  LO.MA.MI    KIVKR,   WHKRK    I  1 1  I-,   INUHKNTS  OCCUKKKU, 
REFERRED  TO  BY  GRENFELL  ON  THIS  PAGE 


was  useless  to  go  to  market  to  buy  food  without  them.  It  has  fallen 
within  my  experience  to  see  slaves  brought  down  to  the  white  man's 
store  and  sold  for  gin  and  rum  and  barter  goods  paid  over  the  counter, 
and  I  have  been  in  the  midst  of  an  Arab  raid  in  the  centre  of  the  con- 
tinent, and  within  twenty-four  hours  counted  twenty-seven  burning  or 
smoking  villages,  and  had  myself  to  face  the  levelled  guns  of  the 
raiders.  I  have  seen  the  cruel  bondage  in  which  whole  communities 
have  been  held  by  their  superstitious  fears — fears  that  compelled  them, 
lest  a  witch  might  be  suffered  to  live,  to  condemn  their  own  flesh  and 
blood,  and  to  inflict  the  most  horrible  cruelties  upon  them.  And  I 
have  all  unavailingly  stood  by  open  graves  and  tried  to  prevent  the 

'  In  commencing  his  review  in  1874  he  refers  of  course  to  his  experiences  in  the 
Cameroons.    He  first  saw  the  Congo  in  the  beginning  of  1878. 


376   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


living  being  buried  with  the  dead,  and  altogether  have  seen  more  of 
the  dark  side  of  human  nature  than  I  care  to  think  about,  and  much 
less  to  write  about.  I  claim  to  know  better  than  a  great  many  what  is 
involved  by  '  native  rule.' 

"  After  ten  years  of  it  I  knew  enough  to  make  me  grateful  beyond 
measure  when  I  learned  that  King  Leopold  of  Belgium  was  taking 
upon  his  shoulders  the  burdens  involved  by  the  administration  of  the 
Congo  territory — burdens  that  our  own  country,  time  and  again,  had 
refused  to  take  up. 

THE  RULE  OF  THE  CONGO  FREE  STATE 
I  884-94 

"  A  marvellous  change  during  the  second  decade  of  my  African 
life  came  over  the  distracted  country  I  had  previously  known  under  the 
chaotic  sway  of  hundreds  of  independent  chiefs.  I  have  often  main- 
tained, and  believe  I  have  been  justified  in  so  doing,  that  in  no  other 
colonial  enterprise,  even  in  twice  the  time,  had  such  an  extent  of 
territory  been  opened  up  and  brought  more  or  less  within  the  range  of 
ordered  government.  The  drink  traffic  had  been  effectual])^  restrained 
within  the  narrowest  possible  limits  on  the  coast  line;  cannibalism  and 
the  slave  trade  were  no  longer  dominating  the  land  and  flaunting  them- 
selves everywhere,  but,  greatly  diminished  by  the  persistently  repressive 
action  of  the  law,  were  being  driven  into  dark  corners  and  hiding- 
places  ;  and,  most  arduous  work  of  all,  the  wave  of  Arab  conquest 
which  I  met  in  1884,  and  which  by  that  time  had  swept  from  Zanzibar 
to  Ujiji  and  on  to  Stanley  Falls,  and  would  undoubtedly  have  over- 
whelmed the  Congo  valley  right  down  to  the  sea,  was  swept  back  by 
the  forces  organized  by  King  Leopold,  and  the  death-blow  given  to  the 
Arab  domination  in  Central  Africa. 

"  Seeing  these  splendid  accomplishments,  it  would,  indeed,  have 
been  strange  if,  when  fitting  opportunities  offered  themselves,  I  had 
failed  to  express  my  appreciation  of  the  benefits  conferred  upon  the 
people.  But  it  was  not  on  account  of  the  people  alone  that  I  felt 
called  upon  to  express  my  satisfaction,  for  routes  had  been  opened  that 
had  previously  been  closed  to  us,  a  fleet  of  steamers  had  been  carried 
overland  round  the  cataracts  and  placed  on  the  upper  river,  and  the 
railway  to  bring  this  fleet  into  direct  steam  communication  with  the 
ocean  was  half  completed.  The  middlemen  who  had  so  long  barred 
the  way  against  missionaries,  and  who  had  not  hesitated  to  use  their 
guns  (on  one  occasion  seriously  wounding  my  colleague,  and  more  than 
once  making  me  their  prisoner),  had  been  overcome,  and  a  way  made 
clear  for  us  right  into  the  heart  of  the  continent.  Having  personally 
realized  such  very  tangible  advantages,  I  could  not  withhold  my  poor 
meed  of  praise.  I  was  sincerely  grateful,  and  said  so.  King  Leopold's 
reputation  as  a  wise  ruler  had  been  eminently  maintained,  and  his 
claims  as  a  philanthropist  had  not  been  traversed.  Single-handed  he 
had  accomplished  more  than  would  have  been  possible  for  the  Colonial 
Office  of  one  of  the  Great  Powers.  It  is  largely  forgotten,  I  imagine, 
how  great  was  the  storm  that  was  raised  by  his  devotion  to  Congo 
interests,  and  how  serious  at  times  was  the  opposition  of  his  own 
people  as  well  as  that  of  some  of  the  Foreign  Powers. 


JOURNEY  TO  UNDISCOVERED  BOURNE  377 


"  It  had  been  my  privilege  to  tal<e  some  small  part  in  the  opening 
up  of  the  country,  and  in  helping  forward  the  development  that  had 
taken  place.  The  change  was  such  as  would  have  gladdened  the  heart 
of  any  man  able  to  compare,  as  I  could,  the  early  days  of  the  Congo 
State  with  the  chaos  that  had  preceded  it,  and  I  was  proud  to  wear  the 
decorations  of  the  monarch  who  had  initiated  the  enterprise  and  who 
had  laboured  and  spent,  as  King  Leopold  had  done,  to  secure  its 
success.  I  will  not  say  that  I  failed  to  recognize  that  the  autocrat  of 
the  Congo  was  but  mortal,  and  that  it  was  possible  for  him  to  make 
mistakes.  Nor  could  I  altogether  shut  my  eyes  to  hints  of  '  self-seek- 
ing '  which  was  said  to  lie  behind  all  this  philanthropy,  beneficence, 
and  magnificent  enterprise ;  but  I  was  firmly  convinced  that  if  His 
Majesty  sought  anything  beyond  the  advantage  of  the  Congo  people, 
it  was  but  the  benefit  of  his  Belgian  subjects,  whose  great  need,  like  the 
Briton's,  is  an  open  market  for  the  products  of  their  labour. 

THE  LAST  TEN  YEARS 
1 894- 1 904 

"Up  to  that  time  (1894)  no  year  had  produced  so  much  as  5  per 
cent  of  the  rubber  which  since  1900  has  figured  as  the  annual  yield. 
With  the  remarkable  development  of  the  rubber  returns  that  has 
characterized  the  past  ten  years,  there  commenced  to  be  heard  com- 
plaints of  the  harsh  treatment  of  the  natives  in  the  collection  of  the 
taxes.  That  a  country  nearly  as  big  as  all  Latin  and  Teutonic  Europe 
should  continue  to  be  administered  on  the  small  dues  levied  on  com- 
merce and  on  the  subsidies  granted  by  the  King  out  of  his  privy  purse, 
and  by  the  Belgian  people,  without  the  natives  contributing  thereto, 
was  not  reasonable.  But  taxes  were  a  new,  strange  feature  in  native 
life  (Congo  people  do  not  understand  anything  even  about  paying 
rent),  and  so  when  the  tax-gatherer  went  his  rounds  armed  with  a  rifle, 
it  led  to  trouble.  In  1895  and  1896,  in  consequence  of  the  barbarous 
methods  adopted  by  some  of  the  agents  of  the  State,  there  was  a 
strong  protest.  The  higher  authorities  were  incredulous,  the  majority 
of  them,  I  believe,  sincerely  so,  and  doubt  was  cast  upon  the  evidence. 
Some  of  the  favourable  statements  I  had  made  regarding  the  benefits 
following  Congo  State  administration  were  adduced  to  prove  the 
impossibility  of  such  things  ;  and  I  had  to  write  to  the  effect  that 
whatever  I  had  written  concerning  other  matters,  I  was  convinced  that 
the  evidence  as  regards  some  of  the  most  serious  charges  was  in  every 
way  trustworthy.  [My  letter  was  published  in  The  Times,  and  was  quoted 
by  Sir  Charles  Dilke  in  the  Congo  debate  of  May  1903  as  helping  to  sub- 
stantiate the  present  charges  against  the  State — this  by  way  of  proving 
that  I  am  not  the  blind  partisan  of  the  Congo  Government  so  many  seem 
to  think.]  Upon  investigation  the  outrages  referred  to  were  followed  by 
a  series  of  heavy  sentences  as  well  as  by  new  legislation  to  prevent 
their  recurrence,  and,  also,  by  the  constitution  of  a  Commission  for 
the  protection  of  the  natives.^    As  by  the  time  the  Commission  was 

'  "  Mr.  Grenfell  .  .  .  was  one  of  that  grand  old  school  of  British  missionaries 
whose  loss  will  be  an  absolutely  irreparable  one  to  the  cause  of  humanity  and  the 
progress  of  white  rule  in  Africa.    The  appointment  of  the  Royal  Commission  of 


378   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


able  to  meet  the  sentences  had  been  passed  and  the  new  repressive 
measures  had  come  into  force,  there  was  such  an  improvement  in 
the  outlook  that  both  my  colleague  (Bentle)')  and  myself,  who  were 
members  of  the  Commission,  realized  that  so  far  as  the  range  of  our 
observation  enabled  us  to  judge,  the  measures  taken  by  the  State  were 
effective — sane  men,  we  felt  sure,  would  not  break  the  laws  and  risk 
such  sentences.  So,  after  the  second  sitting  of  the  Commission,  we 
contented  ourselves  by  acting  individually,  always  finding  the  authorities 
to  whom  we  appealed  ready  to  intervene  in  the  comparatively  minor 
miscarriages  which  from  time  to  time  came  to  our  notice.  So  far  as 
we  could  judge,  the  Government  was  sincerely  trying  to  prevent  the 
recurrence  of  the  previous  scandals  ;  though,  now  and  then,  it  is  true, 
we  heard  rumblings  of  more  or  less  serious  import  from  the  outlying 
districts  beyond  our  ken.  These  always  reached  us  as  the  outcome 
of  a  'state  of  war';  and,  as  even  civilized  war  is  such  a  ghastly 
business,  it  was  not  unnatural  to  find  these  rumours  associated  with 
hideous  details  ;  but  whether  these  things  were  really  the  outcome 
of  war,  or  whether  the  war  was  justifiable  or  not,  were  matters  quite 
beyond  the  mere  amateur  Commissioners  who  were  hundreds  of  miles 
away.    The  Commission  ceased  to  exist  in  March  1903. 

"  The  revelations  concerning  cruelties  inflicted  upon  the  people 
that  were  made  known  by  Consul  Casement,  by  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Weeks, 
and  others  of  my  colleagues  at  the  close  of  1903  compelled  me  to 
believe  in  the  existence  of  a  condition  of  affairs  that  I  had  come  to 
regard  as  belonging  entirely  to  the  old  regime,  and  impossible  under 
the  new.  It  was  with  nothing  less  than  the  most  profound  consternation 
that  I  was  compelled  to  accept  the  evidence  and  to  believe  what 
looked  like  the  incredible. 

"  So  far  as  repressive  legislation  and  deterrent  sentences  are  con- 
cerned, I  believe  the  Government  has  done  its  utmost.  But,  so  long  as 
human  nature  remains  what  it  is,  and  the  present  system  continues  of 
devolving  immense  powers  upon  men  in  isolated  positions,  far  removed 
from  the  restraints  of  civilization  and  helpful  comradeship,  so  long, 
I  am  now  convinced,  will  the  results  that  have  awakened  such  an 
outburst  of  feeling  be  found  to  follow.  Defenders  of  the  Government 
say  these  terrible  things  are  the  acts  of  madmen,  for  which  the 
Government  is  not  to  be  condemned  either  as  barbarous  or  incapable. 
Madness  is  the  only  hypothesis  for  explaining  the  insensate  cruelty 
and  bestiality  which  figure  so  prominently  in  the  charges  made,  and, 
because  of  the  madmen  it  has  developed,  the  present  system  stands 
condemned.  Seeing  the  number  of  lonely  outposts  occupied  by 
single  white  men  with  a  mere  handful  of  native  soldiers  in  the 
midst  of  half- subjugated  and  altogether  cruel  and  superstitious 
people,  it  would  not  be  surprising  if  more  madness  came  to  light. 
It  is  the  system  that  is  to  be  condemned  rather  than  the  poor  in- 
dividual, who,  overcome  by  his  fever-heightened  fears,  loses  control 

Inquiry  was  directly  due  to  his  personal  representation.  The  Government  of  the 
Independent  State  which  had  been  deaf  to  the  outcry  of  those  whom  rightly  or 
wrongly  it  regarded  as  prejudiced  parties,  promptly  acceded  to  the  request  of  one 
whom  it  was  bound  to  acknowledge  as  entirely  impartial  and  reasonable-minded." 
(Viscount  Mountmorres.) 


JOURNEY  TO  UNDISCOVERED  BOURNE  379 


of  himself,  and  resorts  to  awe-inspiring  acts  of  vengeance  to  uphold 
his  authority. 

"  I  cannot  believe  that  those  in  power  in  Brussels,  or  Boma,  or  many 
of  the  local  centres  of  administration,  either  knew  or  in  any  way 
endorsed  these  terrible  things  that  have  been  done  in  their  name.  The 
thing  is,  to  convince  them  that  these  crimes  are  the  natural  outcome  of 
the  system  that,  having  regard  to  recent  sentences  passed  upon  the 
accused,  is  proving  itself  so  utterly  wrong.  The  same  system  would 
have  wrecked  a  British,  or  a  French,  or  a  German  colony  before  this, 
and  I  feel  sure  that  as  soon  as  the  Congo  becomes  in  reality  a  Belgian 
colony,  great  and  important  changes  must  inevitably  follow. 


207.  RUBBER  VICTIMS.     NATIVES  BROUGHT  TO  THE  BAPTIST  MISSION  FOR  TREAT- 
MENT AFTER  OUTRAGES  BY  AGENTS  OF  CONCESSIONNAIRE  COMPANIES 


"  The  Sovereign  of  the  Congo  Independent  State,  unfettered  by  a 
Chamber  of  Representatives,  has  accomplished  great  things,  and,  with 
marvellous  skill,  has  safely  steered  the  State  through  the  dangerous 
shoals  that  imperilled  its  very  existence ;  but  the  recent  apparent 
subjugation  of  the  original  ideals  to  the  exigencies  of  dividend-declar- 
ing concessions,  and  the  interests  of  financiers,  threatens  the  most 
disastrous  exhaustion  of  the  country,  and  to  rob  His  Majesty  of  his 
claim  to  the  foremost  place  among  the  friends  of  Africa,  and  of  a 
down-trodden,  long-suffering  people. 

"  If  I  could  believe,  as  so  many  appear  to  do,  that  His  Majesty  was 
careless  of  the  people  so  long  as  the  rubber  came  in,  and  that  his  chief 
aim  was  '  dividends,'  I  should  have  to  join  with  those  who  accuse  him 
of  having  culpably  failed  of  the  great  and  high  purposes  which  secured 


38o   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


for  him  the  support  of  the  signatory  Powers  in  the  carrying  out  of  his 
philanthropic  plans  for  the  civilization  of  the  Congo  valley.  As  yet  I 
cannot  bring  myself  to  believe  that  King  Leopold  participates  person- 
ally in  the  profits  of  the  rubber  trade,  or  that  he  realizes  to  anything 
like  an  adequate  degree  the  sorrows  that  have  been  inflicted  on  his 
people.  .  .  . 

"  So  far  as  one  can  judge,  the  primary  origin  of  the  charges  being 
levelled  against  the  State  is  to  be  found  in  the  feverish  haste  to  get 
produce  out  of  the  country.  I  know  that  expenses  have  to  be  met ; 
the  great  need  of  the  country  is  administration,  and  I  realize  very 
clearly  the  responsibility  of  the  people  to  contribute  thereto.  If  the 
population  was  anything  like  so  great  as  was  estimated  a  few  years  ago, 
and  if  the  taxes  could  only  be  equally  distributed,  it  would  involve  but 
an  insignificant  burden  to  raise  the  present  cost  of  government.  It  now 
appears  that  the  population  was  greatly  over-estimated,  and  also  that 
the  present  death-rate  in  many  districts  is  nothing  less  than  appalling. 
On  the  thousand  miles  of  waterway  (two  thousand  miles  of  river  bank) 
between  Leopoldville  and  .Stanleyville,  after  counting  the  houses  and 
making  a  liberal  allowance  for  each,  I  very  much  doubt  if  there  are  a 
hundred  thousand  people  in  all  the  riverain  towns  and  villages.  I  have 
it  as  the  serious  statement  of  one  in  authority  that  on  the  Ngiri  River, 
from  which  I  have  just  returned,  there  has  been  a  loss  of  60  per  cent 
of  the  population  during  the  past  twelve  months.  (The  Ngiri  is  an 
affluent  of  the  Mubangi  and  drains  the  peninsula  between  that  river 
and  the  Congo.)  Undoubtedly,  'sleep-sickness'  accounts  for  much, 
but  not  for  all  the  losses.  The  other  day  a  deputation  of  local  chiefs 
waited  upon  me  to  ask  if  I  could  not  help  them  out  of  the  continual 
anxiety  ('lokekete')  in  which  they  lived  by  reason  of  the  uncertainty 
as  to  what  might  be  demanded  of  them  by  the  representatives  of  the 
State.  Said  they :  '  Trouble  of  heart  is  killing  us  faster  than  sickness,' 
and  to  those  who  know  how  impressionable  the  Bantu  is,  it  needs  no 
explanation.  I  believe  there  is  now  a  very  general  readiness  among 
the  people  to  pay  taxes,  but  they  want  to  know  just  how  much  they  are 
liable  for,  either  in  money,  labour,  or  '  kind,'  and  to  have  some  sort  of 
quittance  when  they  have  paid  to  secure  them  from  further  demands 
during  the  current  year.  The  present  system,  or  rather,  lack  of  system, 
not  only  saps  their  vitality  by  reason  of  its  vexatious  uncertainties,  but 
destroys  all  initiative — men  are  afraid  to  build  brick  houses  lest  they 
should  have  to  make  bricks  for  the  State,  and  afraid  to  hunt  or  fish  lest 
they  should  be  compelled  to  fish  and  hunt  for  the  soldiers.  A  fortnight 
ago  orders  were  issued  that  the  district  from  which  I  am  writing  should 
be  relieved  of  all  taxation,  but  this  makes  these  nervous  people  all  the 
more  certain  there  is  some  new  and  unwelcome  development  in  store. 
Many  of  the  people  are  poor,  foolish  children,  and  very  often  very  laz)^ 
but  all  this  is  a  reason  for  stimulating  their  enterprise  by  securing  to 
them  the  rewards  of  their  labour,  and  for  limiting  the  Government 
demands  within  well-defined  boundaries  beyond  the  control  of  soldiers 
and  subordinate  officials. 

"  Having  lived  more  than  half  of  my  life  in  Africa,  and  being  cir- 
cumstanced as  I  am,  the  interests  of  no  country  count  with  me  for  more 
than  those  of  the  country  in  which  I  have  expended  so  much  of  my 


JOURNEY  TO  UNDISCOVERED  BOURNE  381 


life  and  energy.  The  Congo  State  has  had  no  more  sympathetic  partisan 
than  myself,  and  now  for  me  to  find  things  going  wrong  is  a  great  and 
bitter  disappointment.  However,  I  will  not  abandon  the  hope  that 
upon  the  fuller  light  which  should  follow  the  present  investigations, 
things  may  yet  be  so  ordered  that  some  of  the  ideals  of  the  founders 
may  after  all  be  realized,  and  the  Congo  State  become,  what  it  fairly 
set  out  to  be,  a  blessing  to  the  people." 

208.  grenfell's  signature 

At  the  third  general  Conference  of  EvangeHcal  Missionaries 
held  at  Kinshasa,  Stanley  Pool,  January  9th  1906,  Grenfell,  after 
alluding  to  the  recent  obstacles  placed  in  his  way  by  the  Congo 
State  '  which  had  effectually  barred  the  further  progress  of  his 
mission,'  went  on  to  make  the  following  statements  : — 

"  When  I  first  came  to  Congo  there  was  no  civilized  power ;  the 
traders  were  a  law  unto  themselves,  and  I  had  seen  the  evils  of  this  at 
the  Cameroons.  There  was  then  not  a  single  missionary  of  the  Cross 
in  the  land.  I  hailed  the  advent  of  a  European  power.  I  rejoiced  in 
the  prospect  of  better  times.  I  saw  the  fall  of  the  Arabs  ;  I  saw  the 
door  closed  against  strong  drink,  and  when  His  Majesty  bestowed  his 
decorations  upon  me  I  was  proud  to  wear  them. 

"  But  when  change  of  regime  came,  from  philanthropy  to  self-seek- 
ing of  the  basest  and  most  cruel  kind,  I  was  no  longer  proud  of  the 
decorations. 

"  We  are  serving  a  great  Master.  We  are  on  the  winning  side. 
Victory  is  not  uncertain.  Truth  is  strong  and  must  prevail.  We  are 
checked,  but  not  disheartened." 

This  conference  was  attended  by  missionaries  from  Great 
Britain,  the  United  States,  Canada,  Germany,  Sweden,  Norway, 
and  Denmark,  and  amonost  other  business  a  resolution  was 
passed  and  signed  by  fifty-two  of  the  delegates  present  (in- 
cluding Grenfell)  condemning  the  system  of  oppression  still  in 
force,  which  entailed  so  many  atrocities  ;  and  protesting  em- 
phatically against  the  refusal  of  the  State  authorities  to  sell 
sites  for  mission  stations,  a  refusal  which  was  in  flat  contradic- 
tion to  the  General  Act  of  the  Conference  of  Berlin. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


CONGOLAND  BEFORE  THE  WHITE  MAN  RULED 

TO  supplement  Grenfell's  survey  of  Congoland  under 
native  rule,  before  the  white  man  had  interfered  with 
the  conditions  of  native  life  or  had  attempted  to  alter 
native  customs  for  good  or  ill,  I  append  a  number  of  extracts 
from  his  diaries  and  notebooks,  or  from  those  of  Bentley  or 
other  Baptist  missionaries,  besides  reminiscences  of  my  own  ; 
or  information  collected  by  Torday  from  Belgian  and  French 
missionaries  or  employes  of  the  State,  or  from  his  own  re- 
searches. I  shall  limit  myself  in  this  chapter  to  dealing  with 
three  of  the  principal  evils  of  Congoland — Burial  Murders, 
Witchcraft  Persecutions,  and  Cannibalism.  Slavery  has  been 
already  touched  on  in  previous  chapters.  Commercial  dis- 
abilities and  hindrance  to  free  travel  also  require  an  allusion. 

In  their  impatience  at  the  wrongdoing  or  the  rapacity  of  the 
white  man,  critics  of  all  recent  European  enterprise  in  Africa — 
north,  east,  south,  west,  and  central — are  apt  to  assume  that 
the  natives  of  that  Dark  Continent  led  happy,  contented  lives 
before  the  evil  day  of  submission  to  our  rule.  This  is  the 
reverse  of  true  :  though  a  demonstration  of  their  previous 
Reign  of  Terror  is  no  excuse  for  the  misery  of  the  Leopoldian 
regime. 

Burial  Murders. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  in  the  interior  Congo  basin 
north  of  about  6°  S.  Lat.  and  south  of  the  Muhammadan 
regions,  no  free  man  or  woman  of  any  importance  could  be 
buried  without  the  accompanying  sacrifice  of  one  or  many 
adult  men  or  women.  Believing  in  a  life  after  the  grave,  these 
grimly  logical  people  argued  that  the  dead  notability  could  not 
be  ushered  into  the  spirit  world  alone.  There  must  be  a 
servant  or  a  wife-— in  the  case  of  a  chief  or  chieftainess  multi- 
tudes of  retainers — to  accompany  the  dead  woman  or  man  and 
to  carry  on  the  spirit  life  as  nearly  as  possible  on  the  lines  of 
the  terrestrial  existence.  Implements,  utensils,  pottery,  cloth, 
beads,   tobacco  were  similarly  interred — usually  after  being 


BEFORE  THE  WHITE  MAN  RULED  385 


broken,  torn,  bent,  or  "  killed."  The  waste  of  property  in 
trade  goods  or  ivory  occasioned  by  a  chief s  death  was  quite 
onerous  to  the  community. 

As  the  slaves  or  wives  of  the  deceased  were  by  no  means 
willing  to  die  in  the  prime  of  life — and  often  by  cruel  means — 
they  were  perpetually  seeking  to  evade  this  last  duty  to  master 


210.   BOLOBO  CHIEFS  MUNGULU  AND  MUKOKO 

or  husband  by  running  away — in  old  days,  to  a  neighbouring 
chief,  but  more  recently  to  the  nearest  missionary  or  State 
official.    Here  are  some  extracts  from  Grenfell's  diary  : — 

"  Bolobo  justice.  (December  1888.)  Bolobo  chiefs  are  killing  their 
people  off  very  fast.  We  have  only  been  away  a  month  this  time,  and 
James  gives  us  a  terrible  list  of  deaths  at  burials  or  in  punishment  of 
witchcraft.  Thieves  are  sometimes  sold  for  stealing  a  root  of  manioc, 
or  are  punished  by  gagging  with  a  stick  thrust  through  the  flesh  of  the 
I. — 2  c 


386   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


cheeks.  Sometimes  they  are  first  tormented  by  having  their  bodies 
rubbed  with  pepper,  and  then,  '  off  with  their  heads,  and  into  the  river.' 

"3rd  of  June  1889.  A  woman  from  Moyambula's  ran  here.  Her 
nkulu  mwene  (great  mistress)  lay  dead,  and  the  chief  was  waiting  for 
some  one  to  kill  and  bury  with  her — was  not  able  to  buy  a  new  slave. 
Therefore  this  woman  was  to  be  killed.  We  say  we  can  do  nothing. 
This  evening  the  chief  comes,  having  been  told  that  his  woman  Msina 
is  here.  He  wants  us  to  put  the  woman  in  his  hands.  We  say  no,  he 
must  take  her.  She  says,  '  I  won't  go.'  We  say,  '  Come  to-morrow 
and  talk.' 

"4th  of  June.  The  chief  of  the  above-named  woman  comes,  asking 
3.000  brass  rods  for  the  runaway — a  lot  of  talk.  We  do  not  want  her. 
She  says,  '  I  won't  go.'  Kiala,  one  of  our  ransomed  people  (the  one  who 
came  wounded  from  a  fight,  and  whose  bullet  has  only  just  come  out), 
says  he  will  pay  1,000  brass  rods  for  her  if  we  will  let  him  work  it  out. 
He  is  a  good  fellow.  We  ultimately  arranged  the  bargain  for  1,500 
brass  rods. 

"5th  of  July  1889.  A  man  and  a  woman  have  been  killed  to-day 
at  Mungulu's  to  accompany  his  dead  wife,  Mbonjeka. 

"7th  of  July  1889.  We  hear  there  are  two  people  tied  up  at 
Mungulu's,  ready  to  be  buried  alive  with  Mbonjeka's  corpse.  The  man 
killed  yesterday  was  decapitated  and  his  body  thrown  into  the  river. 
His  head  was  buried,  and  will  be  produced  amongst  others  in  a  week  or 
two's  time  to  adorn  the  roof  of  one  of  Mungulu's  houses.  The  woman 
killed  yesterday  was  beaten  to  death  with  sticks.  .  .  .  July  7.  Having 
heard  at  3.15  that  Mungulu  was  just  about  to  bury  Mboiyaka, 
Miss  Silvey,  James  and  his  wife,  and  I  started  to  protest  against 
burying  the  two  victims  with  the  corpse.  We  arrived  just  as  the 
executioner  (a  well-known  character  with  a  wild  maniacal  look  always 
present  on  his  face)  was  untying  the  young  woman  from  the  post  to. 
which  she  had  been  made  fast.  Seeing  us,  he  hurriedly  picked  her  up 
in  his  arms,  and  carried  her  into  the  house  where  the  grave  had  been 
dug.  I  followed  him,  and  found  the  young  man  who  was  to  be  her 
fellow-victim  already  seated  by  the  side  of  the  grave  and  next  to  the 
big  bundle  (like  a  roll  of  carpet  two  yards  long  and  one  thick)  which 
had  been  formed  by  tying  cloth  round  the  corpse.  Without  thinking 
what  I  was  to  say  or  how  I  should  say  it,  I  arraigned  the  old  chief  for 
his  conduct  in  such  vigorous  terms  that  he  left  the  victims,  the  execu- 
tioner, and  myself  inside  the  house  (out  of  which  the  end  had  been 
taken)  and  retreated  through  the  wondering  crowd.  Having  exhausted 
my  stock  of  Kibangi,  I  talked  very  strongly  to  James,  and  got  him  to 
explain  to  the  onlookers  that  God  who  had  given  life  would  call  to 
account  those  who  took  it  away :  that  we  should  all  meet  again  at  the 
judgment  seat  of  God,  who  would  ask  about  these  poor  people  now 
about  to  be  killed  :  that  now  I  had  spoken  to  them  they  could  not 
excuse  themselves  by  saying  they  did  not  know.  One  of  Mungulu's 
friends  took  up  the  matter  and  said,  '  But  are  these  people  your  friends? 
Are  they  the  people  of  this  country?  Are  they  not  strangers,  and  have 
we  not  bought  them  ? '  We  reiterated  that  God  had  said,  '  Thou  shalt 
not  kill,'  and  that  if  they  broke  the  law  they  would  have  to  suffer  for 
it,  and  they  would  remember  I  had  given  them  warning.    Then  old 


211.  SPECIMEN  OF  PAGE  FROM  URENFELl.'s  J)1AR\    W  RU  i  KN  IN  PENCIL 


388    GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Mungulu  came  out,  and  I  gave  him  another  pelting  with  hard  words  ; 
my  heart  was  very  hot  within  me  to  see  the  tears  of  the  poor  crying 
victims  of  such  cruel  customs.  Once  more  the  chief  retreated,  and 
James  addressed  the  people  again  and  warned  all  there  plainly  of  God's 
law  and  their  breaking  it.  Mungulu  again  came  back,  and  I  once  more 
told  him  he  would  have  to  meet  these  poor  people  and  me  before  God's 
throne  and  then  answer  for  their  lives.  Poor  old  man  !  He  very  visibly 
quailed  ;  but  what  could  he  do — submit  to  mere  words  over  a  belief  he 
had  sucked  in  with  his  mother's  milk,  and  yield  momentarily  to  a 
stranger's  threat,  to  a  far-off  contingency  ?  No.  We  had  not  turned 
our  backs  more  than  a  few  seconds  (we  only  prolonged  the  misery  of 
the  poor  victims  by  waiting)  when  they  were  thrown  into  the  grave  and 
the  corpse  placed  on  their  bodies.  They  were  speedily  covered  in  and 
buried  alive." 

On  the  13th  of  April  1890  he  writes  : — 

"  We  hear  from  the  woman  Mungolo  that  on  Manga  being  dead 
three  people  were  killed  yesterday,  and  that  four  more  are  tied  up  ready 
for  to-day.  Ngoie  and  Mungulu  are  evidently  uncomfortable  and 
hurried  in  their  communications  with  us,  knowing  our  abhorrence  of 
such  things,  and  fearing  our  lecturing  them.  But  what  is  the  use  ? 
Even  the  State  was  unable  to  prevent  people  being  killed  when  Mata 
Bwiki  died.  For  the  Commissaire  saw  him  buried  by  his  own  Hausas  ; 
but  at  night  the  natives  dug  him  up  and  put  the  bodies  of  five  victims 
with  the  corpse  in  the  grave,  as  it  was  too  great  a  shame  to  let  a  big 
man  like  Bwiki  be  buried  in  that  fashion.  The  white  man  having  come, 
and  seeing  the  grave  not  quite  filled  in,  inquired  what  they  were  doing. 
'  Oh,  nothing,  only  putting  the  earth  in  properly  ;  the  Hausas  did  not 
do  it  right.'  Force  cannot  stop  it  all  at  once.  The  people  need  to 
learn  the  sanctity  of  life  and  the  folly  and  sin  of  such  things  before 
they  become  things  of  the  past.  Even  at  Lukolela,  when  Mangaba 
died  they  made  the  white  man  believe  no  one  had  been  killed  ;  but  it 
turned  out  later  that  several  victims  were  sacrificed." 

[Ibaka,  the  principal  chief  of  Bolobo,^  had  died.]  On  the 
15th  of  April  1889  Grenfell  writes: — 

"  James  tells  me  that  some  eight  people  have  been  killed  to  accom- 
pany Ibaka.  The  women  had  a  woman  given  to  them  to  kill.  They 
despatched  her  with  their  hoes,  as  their  custom  is.  Two  or  three  were 
buried  alive,  others  beaten  to  death  with  sticks,  and  one  or  two  were 
drowned.  The  chief  of  Ntsi  Bolobo  died  two  days  after  Ibaka.  Ibaka 
said  they  were  to  kill  no  Mbosi  people  for  him,  as  he  came  from  that 
river  himself 

"  Akanja  of  Manga  is  going  to  take  off  his  mourning  for  his  wife 
to-morrow,  so  has  tied  up  a  poor  slave  (a  woman),  who  is  going  to  be 
killed  to  celebrate  the  event." 

'  To  whom  considerable  reference  is  made  in  the  present  writer's  work,  The 
River  Congo,  from  its  Mouth  to  Bolobo. 


BEFORE  THE  WHITE  MAN  RULED 


389 


On  the  17th  of  June  1890  Grenfell  writes 


"  Ngoie  three  days  after  we  left  brought  a  slave  to  sell  to  our  station. 
James  would  not  buy.  In  less  than  five  minutes  the  slave's  head  was 
off.    Stapleton  went  round  and  saw  the  body  lying  on  the  beach — the 

head  had  been   

severed  with  one 
clean  blow  of 
the  execution- 
er's knife." 

"One  of 
B  oyambu  la's 
men  has  lost  his 
wife  just  re- 
cently, and  has 
killed  nine 
slaves,  buried 
five  and  thrown 
four  into  the 
river.  Bolobo 
people  say, 
'  Congo  water  is 
no  good,'  and 
come  to  our 
well.  No  won- 
der they  don't 
drink  the  river 
water  !  " 

On  the 
25th  of  Au- 
o-  u  s  t  1894, 
Mungulu,  of 
whom  there  is 
so  much  to-do 
in  previous  ex- 
tracts, himself 
died,  and  was 
himself  buried 
with  several 
slaves  and 
possibly  one  or 

two  wives.  Others  of  his  wives  and  slaves  took  refuge  at  the 
Mission.  He  was  probably  the  last  chief  of  Bolobo  able  to 
observe  the  old  ceremonies.  Similar  stories  of  burial  murders 
all  over  the  northern  half  of  the  Congo  basin  have  been  told  by 
other  missionaries  or  State  officials. 

An  equal  terror  in  native  life,  and  one  of  wider,  more 


IBAKA,  THE  PRINCIPAL  CHIEF  OF  BOLOBO  IN  THE 
'eighties  OF  THE  LAST  CENTURY 
(Sketched  by  Sir  Harry  Johnston  in  1883.) 


390   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


universal  extent  than  burial  sacrifices  or  cannibalism,  was  both 
the  belief  in  witchcraft  and  the  constant  imposition  of  cruel, 
usually  fatal,  ordeals  on  persons  accused  of  occult  powers.  This 
"  smelling-out  "  of  witches  in  southern  and  eastern  Bantu  Africa 

has  been  excused  by 
some  writers  because 
the  practice  of  witch- 
craft in  so  much  of 
Bantu  Africa  was  con- 
nected with  unwhole- 
some secret  or  masonic 
societies,  and  also  with 
the  disgusting  practice 
of  corpse-eating.^ 

But,  except  perhaps 
in  the  cataract  reoion 

o 

of  the  Congo  or  in 
Lundaland,  nati\'e 
society  was  not  much 
shocked  at  the  idea  of 
eatino-  dead  bodies. 
The  trial  and  punish- 
ment of  wizards  was  a 
much  older  practice, 
due  to  the  negro's  sus- 
ceptibility  to  hypnotism 
and  hypnotic  sugges- 
tions, his  acute  dread 
of  the  unseen  forces 
around  him  ;  and  also, 
it  must  be  added,  to 
the  knowledge  of  vege- 
table  poisons  among 
old  men  and  women 
which  they  frequently 
misused  to  kill  those 
whose  death  was  de- 
sired. Over  all  Central 
Africa  south  of  the  Muhammadan  zone  and  north  of  the 
Zambezi  twenty  years  ago  it  was  almost  impossible  in  native 
belief  to  die  "naturally."  A  stroke  of  lightning,  an  earth- 
quake, a  hurricane  might  it  is  true  be  attributed  directly  to 

'  In  Nyasaland  and  Uganda,  until  quite  recently,  many  "witches"  or  "wizards" 
were  veritable  ghouls. 


213.  NGOIE,  A  CHIEF  OF  BOLOBO  (1894),  MUCH 
REFERRED  TO  IN  GRENFELL'S  DIARIES  (VIDE 
PAGES  388-9) 


BEFORE  THE  WHITE  MAN  RULED  391 


the  "Act  of  God,"  but  any  other  death-deaHng  incident  on 
a  less  grandiose  scale  was  due  to  witchcraft.  If  a  man  or 
woman  was  killed  by  a  crocodile,  leopard,  buffalo,  elephant,  or 
python,  then  the  animal  in  question  was  a  witch  in  disguise 
or  had  been  spiritually  directed  by  the  witch.^  All  illness  except 
possibly  extreme  old  age  was  attributed  to  witchcraft. .  Conse- 
quently after  every  death  from  disease  or  accident  one  or  more 
persons  must  be  identified  as  witches  and  either  made  to 
undergo  an  ordeal — often  fatal — or,  if  public  opinion  was  much 
excited,  be  killed  at  sight,  in  order  that  their  intestines  might  be 
searched  for  the  conclusive  proof  of  witchcraft — the  presence  of 
a  gall-bladder  or  bile-glancl.^  As  every  normal  human  being 
has  a  gall-bladder  all  accused  and  slaughtered  persons  were 
proved  to  be  witches. 

The  different  kinds  of  ordeal  will  be  described  in  another 
chapter,  but  a  few  typical  instances  might  be  quoted  here  from 
Bentley  and  Grenfell  regarding  the  treatment  of  persons  ac- 
cused of  witchcraft. 

"5th  of  July  1889.  Echara  killed  at  Manga's  for  witchcraft. 
Ekunangubo's  men  had  died  recently,  and  it  was  said  to  be  Echara's  fault. 
Ekunangubo  is  one  of  the  Manga  Town  chiefs,  and  had  killed  Echara's 
mother  where  our  own  station  now  stands  (the  old  site  of  Manga  Town). 
Echara  himself  on  being  opened  after  his  death  did  not  possess  the 
internal  marks  of  a  witch,  which  are  eagerly  sought  for  and  exhibited 
as  proof  of  the  truth  of  the  charge.  (What  this  is  exactly,  I  do  not 
know,  but  it  seems  to  be  some  not  unusual  intestinal  growth  which  can 
be  extracted  and  exhibited.  I  remember  the  '  witch  '  out  of  Ngaliema's 
sister  was  hung  up  on  a  pole  in  the  town,  and  was  held  to  be  sufficient 
justification  for  Ngaliema^  having  put  his  sister  to  death.)  In  Echara's 
case,  this  evidence  not  having  been  forthcoming,  his  friends  are  greatly 
excited,  and  reprisals  are  not  unlikely." 

"  A  character  for  meanness,  refusing  to  share  one's  belongings  with 
anyone  who  may  ask  for  them,  or  success  in  trade  and  growing  wealth, 
unusual  skill  as  a  craftsman,  any  ability  above  the  ordinary,  surely 
makes  a  man  a  witch  in  the  eyes  of  his  fellows."  (Bentley.) 

An  old  man  who  outlives  his  creneration  becomes  a  witch 
without  doubt  in  the  eyes  of  the  people.  Where  a  witch-doctor 
is  found  out  cheating  or  his  accusations  make  life  intolerable, 
he  is  occasionally  set  upon  and  killed.  This  is  sometimes  done 
by  breaking  his  arms  and  legs  with  a  club  and  then  throwing 
him  down  into  a  chasm  or  pit  where  he  starves  to  death. 

1  See  p.  494. 

^  The  Likundu  of  the  northern  Congo. 

^  Ngaliema  was  the  great  Bateke  chief  of  Ntamo  (Leopoldville). 


392   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


In  a  case  reported  by  Bentley,  a  man  was  so  indignant  with 
the  witch-doctor  at  being-  accused  that  he  took  his  oun  and  shot 
him  on  the  spot.  He  had  to  pay  a  fine  of  twenty  slaves  to  the 
doctor's  relatives  as  blood-money,  but  no  witch-finder  ventured 
to  indicate  him  after  that. 

Witches,  as  already  stated,  are  supposed  to  possess  the 
power  of  assuming  other  forms.  They  may  as  crocodiles  or 
leopards  seize  and  devour  human  beings,  toss  them  as  buffaloes, 
or  crush  them  as  elephants,  or  they  may  assume  the  form  o( 
a  small  goblin,  only  visible  to  the  eyes  of  the  haunted  person, 
and  follow  about  their  predestined  victim,  singing,  staring, 
gibbering  at  him,  drawing  his  life  out  of  him  by  some  magnetic 
process,  so  that  at  last  the  man  falls  sick  and  dies.  This  pro- 
cess on  the  Lower  Congo  is,  accordmg  to  Bentley,  called  jina. 

"  Engwa,  our  late  rowdy  Bangala,  has  a  wen  on  his  neck  (so  we 
hear).  Manjombi  is  accused  of  witching  him,  and  has  had  to  throw 
150  brass  rods  into  the  river  to  his  nko/i  (crocodile)  to  beg  the  nko/i  not 
to  proceed  with  eating  Engwa  as  per  previous  arrangement."  (Grenfell). 

"  Bolobo,  31st  December  1893.  Esumbi,  the  Nganga,  is  still  at  his 
work,  unearthing  witches,  though  happily  his  last  two  accusations,  now 
four  days  old,  have  not  yet  resulted  in  deaths.  To-day  he  says,  '  What 
is  the  use  of  my  showing  the  witches  if  you  do  not  kill  them?'  The 
Mpinjo  people  are  calling  him  to-day  to  ascertain  who  it  was  that 
'  bought '  the  buffalo  which  killed  one  of  their  women  in  the  farm 
yesterday.  He  (Esumbi)  had  a  row  with  his  brother  yesterday, 
and  broke  up  the  inonganga  (medicine)  he  had  provided  him  with. 
By  means  of  these  charms  the  brother  had  been  able  to  set  up 
and  carry  on  a  branch  of  the  business,  Bolobo  being  a  big  place,  and 
furnishing  more  clients  than  Esumbi  could  attend  to.  The  unwilling- 
ness of  the  brother  to  settle  up  accounts  was  at  the  bottom  of  the  row, 
but  the  breaking  of  the  charms  brought  him  to  reason,  and  the  affair  is 
patched  up.  Esumbi  declares  he  will  go  back  to  his  home  near  Equator 
Station  and  send  another  to  take  his  place,  who  shall  be  well  posted  up 
in  the  news  of  the  place  no  doubt.  Esumbi  has  reaped  a  fine  harvest : 
he  seems  to  count  only  in  thousands  of  brass  rods.  He  has  been  at  the 
bottom  of  no  one  knows  how  many  deaths  during  the  last  two  months. 
I  fear  that  twenty  is  far  below  the  mark,  and  lots  of  misery  for  survivors 
— poor  people  !  "  (Grenfell.) 

"July  23  1894.  Bokatula  died  three  or  four  days  ago,  and  we  have 
been  having  great  excitement — people  running  away  for  fear  of  being 
buried  alive  or  killed  to  grace  the  funeral  obsequies.  He  is  said  to  have 
died  as  nkila — the  nkila  being  in  this  instance  the  price  paid  b)'  his  son 
for  some  charm,  the  witch-doctor  having  included  the  father's  life  in  the 
price.  Bokatula  himself  not  so  long  ago  went  to  a  famous  doctor  for 
medicine  to  get  rich.  As  nkila  he  had  to  pay  three  lives,  and  shortly 
after  three  of  his  people  died,  it  is  said  of  poison.   The  doctor  demands 


BEFORE  THE  WHITE  MAN  RULED  393 


at  times  the  nearest  relatives,  and  the  price  must  be  paid  ;  for  if  a  man 
sets  his  mind  on  the  possession  of  a  charm,  what  will  he  not  give?" 
(Grenfell.) 

Here  is  a  note  from  Professor  Halkin's  study  of  the 
Ababua  people  of  the  Bomokandi-Wele — in  the  far  north  of 
the  Cong-o  State/ 

Only  death  from  old  age  is  considered  as  natural ;  if  young 
people  die  it  is  believed  that  they  have  been  killed  by  some  one 
possessed  by  "  likundu"  (a  foreign  word),  which  corresponds  to  the  evil 


214.  B.M.S.  MISSION  CHURCH  AT  l;(il.0l!0 


eye,  and  the  suspected  individual  is  submitted  to  a  poison  ordeal.  Dr. 
Vedy  [quoted  by  Professor  Halkin]  reported  cases  where  the  accused 
was  first  killed,  and  then  his  entrails  searched  for  the  "  likundu,"  which 
is  always  found,  as  it  is  the  gall-bladder. 

Bentley  thus  describes  the  process  of  divination  and  the 
discovery  of  a  witch  enacted  at  San  Salvador  soon  after  the 
Mission  was  established  there  : — 

"  In  the  early  morning  we  heard  a  strange  bellowing  noise,  far  out  in 
the  jungle,  along  the  western  road.  Now  and  then  it  stopped,  and  we 
heard  it  coming  from  some  nearer  point.    It  was  some  time  before  we 

'  Qiielqucs  peiiplades  dti  district  de  VUele,  Professor  Joseph  Halkin,  Li^ge. 


394   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


could  ascertain  what  it  was  even,  much  less  know  the  business  in 
hand.  We  learned  that  it  was  a  dingwinti  drum.  Presently  we  heard 
it  at  the  entrance  of  the  town,  near  our  house.  We  went  to  see 
what  was  on.  A  woman  and  several  young  men  were  sitting  in  the 
footpath  with  the  bellowing  instrument.  [A  friction  drum. — H.  H.  J.] 
Its  construction  was  simple :  it  was  an  empty  powder  barrel  about 
fourteen  inches  high  by  seven  inches  in  diameter.  One  end  of  the 
barrel  was  open  ;  over  the  other  end  a  skin  was  tightly  stretched. 
In  the  centre  of  the  skin  was  a  string,  and  to  this  was  attached  a 
short  piece  of  cane.  The  player  was  holding  the  drum  in  his  feet, 
and  letting  the  piece  of  cane  slip  between  his  wet  fingers,  as  he 
pulled  them  down  over  it,  hand  over  hand.     The  slipping  of  his 


215.   HAPTIST  MISSION  CHURCH,  SAN  SALVADOR 


fingers  down  the  cane  set  up  a  vibration  of  the  tympanum  of  the  drum, 
and  there  issued  a  loud,  unearthly  bellowing  noise.  The  man  who  was 
playing  it  was  continually  making  grimaces.  This  slow  approach  of 
the  doctor  was  a  very  impressive  preface  to  the  day's  proceedings. 

"  About  an  hour  later  we  heard  that  all  the  people  were  gathered  in 
an  open  space  in  the  town ;  a  witch-doctor  had  come  to  find  the  witch 
who  had  caused  the  death  of  a  relative  of  the  king.  We  went  to  see 
what  was  in  process,  not  knowing  how  far  we  might  have  to  interfere. 
We  were  invited  to  retire,  but  would  not  understand  the  wish,  and  took 
our  seats  in  a  convenient  position. 

"  The  woman  who  had  been  seen  earlier  in  the  morning  sitting  in 
the  path  beside  the  bellowing  drum  was  a  noted  doctor,  who  was  re- 
tiring from  the  business  ;  she  was  that  morning  completing  the  initia- 
tion of  a  young  man  who  had  bought  the  fetish  and  the  '  goodwill' 
She  sat  behind  the  doctor,  and  from  time  to  time  told  him  what  to  do. 


BEFORE  THE  WHITE  MAN  RULED  395 


"  The  doctor  had  whitened  his  face  with  pipe-clay,  the  neighbour- 
hood of  one  of  his  eyes  was  bright  with  red  ochre,  the  other  was  yellow  ; 
his  arms  also  were  smeared  with  pipe-clay.  Burnt  cork  has  a  decidedly 
transforming  effect  when  applied  over  a  white  face ;  still  more  astonish- 
ing is  the  effect  of  pipe-clay  on  a  black  face  and  body.  What  with 
pipe-clay  and  the  coloured  ochres  the  doctor  was  very  hideous.  The 
effect  was  heightened  by  continual  monkey-like  grimaces,  the  rolling  of 
the  eyes,  and  peeping  into  his  fetish  bundles.  He  shook  his  rattle, 
chattered  and  gibbered,  fidgeted  with  his  fetishes,  and  from  time  to 
time  spoke  to  the  people  ;  they  expressed  their  horror  of  the  crime,  or 
joined  in  the  imprecations,  by  lifting  up  and  extending  the  right  hand 
above  the  head.  The  performance  continued  somewhat  monotonously 
for  nearly  two  hours.  Our  presence  evidently  embarrassed  the  doctor 
considerably;  sometimes  he  paused  and  seemed  loth  to  proceed,  discuss- 
ing with  the  woman  and  those  who  had  come  with  him.  Once  or 
twice  he  complained  of  our  presence,  and  wished  us  to  go,  but  we  pre- 
ferred to  sit  the  performance  out.  Some  of  the  more  intelligent  among 
the  townsfolk  were  ashamed  of  the  affair,  but  all  this  made  it  more 
necessary  for  us  to  remain.  At  last  the  time  for  the  actual  divination 
came.  The  doctor  worked  himself  up  into  a  state  of  excitement,  and  a 
dozen  or  twenty  people  were  placed  forward.  The  doctor  danced, 
rattled  his  rattles,  and  raved,  and  at  length  all  of  those  brought  forward 
retired  but  two ;  one  of  these  was  the  witch.  The  excitement  was 
great.  After  more  raving  and  incantation  a  pot  of  water  was  spilt  on 
the  ground.  Two  streams  trickled  for  some  distance,  and  in  some  way, 
from  the  behaviour  of  the  water,  the  decision  was  made — a  slave  of  the 
king,  one  of  the  two  left  before  the  doctor,  was  declared  the  witch.  He 
protested  his  innocence,  and  there  was  some  excited  talk,  but  the 
assembly  broke  up  without  more  devilry.  Our  presence  doubtless  con- 
siderably modified  the  result.  The  man  was  fined,  but  nothing  else 
followed. 

"  This  was  the  last  time  that  the  woman  took  part  in  witch-doctor- 
ing. Having  thus  retired  from  the  business  she  told  some  of  her  friends 
that  she  had  denounced  two  hundred  people  as  witches,  but  of  these 
only  sixty  were  really  witches.  It  is  not  fully  clear  what  she  meant  by 
this  statement,  but  this  is  certain,  that  one  hundred  and  forty  were 
denounced  without  any  real  reason,  as  far  as  she  knew  ;  possibly  some- 
thing in  the  divination  made  her  feel  sure  of  the  sixty.  Her  son  came 
into  our  school  at  San  Salvador  later  on,  and  became  a  member  of  the 
Church."  {Pio7ieering  on  the  Corig'o.) 

There  was  no  freedom  of  commerce  and  of  transit  in  the 
Congo  basin  before  the  advent  of  the  European  as  a  ruler. 

Just  as  the  mountain  region  which  lay  between  the  vast 
lake-like  basin  of  the  Conoco  and  the  sea-coast  was  arranged  in 
a  series  of  terraces  and  escarpments,  each  of  which  had  to  be 
scaled  in  turn  by  the  explorer,  so  the  European  who  might  wish 
to  exchange  products  with  the  people  of  the  far  interior  had  to 
overcome — if  he  could — the  serried  rows  of  middlemen  tribes 
that  lay  between  the  coast-belt  and  the  rich  interior.    On  the 


396   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


south  of  the  Lower  Congo  there  were  different  tribes  of  Kongo 
peoples — the  people  of  Boma,  of  Noki,  of  San  Salvador,  the 
people  of  Makuta  and  of  Zombo.  On  the  north  bank  there 
were  the  Basundi  and  the  Babwende  before  the  Bateke  were 
reached.  Each  tribe  exacted  a  heavy  toll  of  the  goods  that 
passed  through  its  territory.  Farther  south,  along  the  Kwango 
River,  there  were  jealous  peoples  that  barred  direct  access  to 
the  Mwata  Yanvo's  kino^dom.  In  the  Lunda  territories  of  the 
Mwato  Yanvo,  trade  was  less  hampered,  it  is  true,  once  the  big 


216.   HENRIQUE  DE  CARVALHO  STATION  IN  EASTERN  ANGOLA 
Founded  in  1884  to  protect  Portuguese  traders  with  the  Lunda  country. 


chiefs  received  a  heavy  present.  But  this  was  rather  the  happ)^ 
fate  of  powerful  expeditions  under  mulatto  Portuguese.  The 
humbler  traders — educated  negroes — coming-  from  the  settled 
territories  of  Portuguese  West  Africa  were  frequently  plundered 
and  despoiled  of  their  goods,  and  kept  in  captivity  for  many 
weary  months  till  they  had  ransomed  themselves  by  the  whole 
of  their  pack.  Grenfell  gives  numerous  instances  of  this  kind, 
told  to  him  by  the  Ambaquistas — the  civilized  trading  negroes 
of  Ambaka  in  Angola. 

On  the  main  Congo  the  Bayanzi  or  Babangi  exchanged 
products  with  the  Bateke  and  Bakongo  on  Stanley  Pool. 
Higher  up  the  river  they  would  have  to  turn  over  trade  to 


BEFORE  THE  WHITE  MAN  RULED  397 


the  Bangala.  These  again  would  be  stopped  by  the  Basoko, 
the  Basoko  by  the  Bagenya,  and  so  forth.  About  the  only 
moderately  unrestricted  commerce  was  that  in  slaves  intended 
for  the  cannibal  markets  of  the  Mubangi. 

As  to  freedom  of  transit  in  the  pre-State  clays,  the  follow- 
ing extract  from  my  own  diary  in  November  1882  is  a  sufficient 
illustration  of  what  might  befall  the  traveller  anywhere  in  the 
Congo  basin  who  was  not  at  the  head  of  a  powerful  caravan. 

(I  was  leaving  the  mission  station  of  Palabala  to  proceed 
to  Kongo  dia  lemba.) 

"  At  breakfast  this  morning  the  missionaries^  said,  'You  had  better 
leave  to-day,  Saturday,  because  we  do  not  like  to  see  Europeans 
starting  for  a  journey  on  a  Sunday ;  it  seems  to  contradict  our  teach- 
ing.' Three  carriers  present  themselves  from  the  village,  accompanied 
by  a  chief.  Before  they  will  start  I  must  present  them  with  the  value 
of  two  guns  each  and  give  '  half  a  gun  '  to  the  chief.  '  But  you  cannot 
go  till  you  have  seen  King  Kangumpaka.'  King  Kangumpaka  arrives, 
trembling  with  anger,  offended  at  not  having  been  apprised  earlier  of 
my  intention  to  start.  Must  have  fifteen  shillings'  worth  of  cloth 
before  I  leave  the  town.  'Can  I  go  then?'  'Perhaps  (he  says),  but  I 
cannot  help  you  with  carriers  unless  you  give  a  present  to  the  other  king.' 
I  refuse.  '  Very  well,  good-bye.'  I  try  to  start  with  my  own  carriers 
from  Underbill.  No,  they  will  not  go  without  the  king's  permission. 
I  sit  down  to  breakfast  in  despair,  cursing  the  whole  system  of  human 
porterage.  After  breakfast,  not  liking  to  give  up  without  a  struggle,  I 
pay  the  king  a  visit  with  Mr.  White.  Like  the  Sibylline  Books,  the 
demand  increases  with  each  refusal.  Now  he  wants  four  'guns'  of 
cloth  and  five  bottles  of  rum.  I  refuse.  The  king  is  making  inkiinba 
caps,  and  he  goes  on  tranquilly  with  his  work,  showing  Mr.  White 
with  childish  pride  the  funny  gewgaws  he  has  made.  ...  At  length  I 
agree  to  give  him  a  'book'  for  four 'guns'-  and  one  bottle  of  rum.  Now 
I  may  go.  However,  there  is  still  a  difficulty  about  the  extra  carriers, 
so  I  start  off  with  my  five  original  porters  from  Underbill,  leaving  some 
of  my  luggage  behind.  (Here  follows  a  description  of  the  route.) 
We  arrive  at  a  sort  of  market-place,  whence  many  paths  diverge.  I 
take  one  that  seems  a  continuation  of  the  former  road,  and  walk  on 
with  confidence  till  sunset,  soon  after  which  we  reach  Kongo  dia  lemba, 
and  send  to  ask  if  we  may  sleep  in  the  town.  The  natives  refuse, 
saying  that  it  is  not  the  custom  for  any  white  man  to  do  so,  so  I  have 
to  camp  out  by  the  wayside. 

"  At  five  (the  next  morning)  we  prepare  to  be  off,  when  several  men 
come  out  of  the  town  and  want  to  know  what  present  I  am  going  to 
give  the  woman  chief  of  Kongo  dia  lemba.  After  chaffering  for  some 
time  they  demand  through  my  head  carrier  (who  interprets  into 
Portuguese)  so  exorbitant  an  amount  that  I  refuse.  Whereupon  they 
will  not  let  me  pass  further  along  the  road.    Disgusted  and  wet,  and 

^  Of  the  Livingstone  Inland  Mission. 

^  A  "  gun  "  in  those  days  meant  about  4s.  in  cloth  or  trade  goods. 


398   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


feeling  that  this  will  be  the  order  of  the  day  at  every  village  I  pass 
through,  I  reluctantly  retrace  my  steps  to  Palabala." 

"  It  is  a  common  trick"  (writes  Grenfell  on  the  Lunda  expedition) 
"  when  a  caravan  is  passing  through  a  district  to  place  one  or  two  corn- 
cobs on  the  road  and  watch  for  the  men  who  pick  them  up.  One  or 
other  of  the  passers-by  of  the  strangers'  caravan  is  sure  to  pick  up  this 
inoffensive-looking  cob ;  when  the  watcher  pounces  on  his  load  and 
does  not  let  it  go  again  till  the '  flagrant  robbery'  has  been  atoned  for 
by  a  heavy  payment,  the  payment  being  gauged  by  the  relative  strength 
of  the  caravan  to  that  of  the  neighbouring  town  :  as  the  natives  say, 
'  The  strong  take  much,  the  stronger  more.' " 

Cannibalism  may  have  existed  intermittently  and  inherently 
in  the  human  race  from  that  almost  pre-human  period  when 
Pithecanthropos  was  constrained  by  the  struggle  for  existence 
to  become  definitely  carnivorous,  thus  following  the  same  de- 
velopment in  diet  as  the  rat,  squirrel,  lemming,  pig,  and  cer- 
tain domestic  breeds  of  cattle  and  sheep.  But  this  practice 
of  eating  one's  own  species  is  an  aberration  even  among  pro- 
fessed carnivores,  and  cannibalism  is  a  vice  rather  than  a 
normal  instinct,  a  vice  possibly  of  relatively  recent  growth 
among  the  populations  of  the  Congo  basin.  It  seems  probable 
that  the  forest  pygmies  of  Central  Africa  and  the  Bushmen 
and  Hottentots  of  South  Africa  were  not — are  not  normally 
now — cannibals.  The  Bantu  negroes  have  been  peculiarly 
prone  to  eating  human  flesh.  The  Nile  negroes  are  almost 
exempt  from  this  failing,  historically  and  actually,  though  the 
immunity  may  not  go  back  many  centuries. 

Cannibalism  of  the  normal  kind — the  eating  of  freshly  killed 
human  beings — is  only  recently  extinct  in  South-East  and  East 
Africa,  It  still  lingers  in  holes  and  corners,^  and  also  in  the  nasty 
form  of  devouring  putrefying  corpses."  During  warfare  the 
East  African  Bantu  can  still  be  wrought  up  by  excitement  to 
eat  portions  of  their  dead  enemies.  But  for  all  practical  purposes 
cannibalism  has  become  extinct  in  Central Aiv'icdi  outside  the  limits 
of  the  Congo  basin,  except  in  a  narrow  fringe  of  the  Bahr-al- 
Ghazal  region  along  the  Congo  water-parting.  It  lingers  in  the 
hinterland  of  the  Gaboon  and  Cameroons  to  the  limits  of  the 
Shari  and  Benue  basins,  breaks  out,  however,  in  the  southern 
Benue  and  Cross  River  countries,  still  rages  in  the  Niger  delta, 
and  elsewhere,  westwards,  crops  up  in  the  French  Ivory  Coast,  in 

^  Uganda,  parts  of  German  East  Africa,  Nyasaland,  Portuguese  South-East 
Africa,  and  (until  recently)  Zululand. 

^  This  practice  of  corpse-eating  is  very  old,  and  lies  at  the  bottom  of  the  Arab 
stories  of  ghouls. 


BEFORE  THE  WHITE  MAN  RULED 


399 


eastern  and  central  Liberia,  and  perhaps  in  the  recesses  of 
Portuguese  Guinea. 

It  seems  to  be  quite  extinct  in  Portuguese  West  Africa, 
except  perhaps  along  the  lower  Kwango.  In  fact  as  a  raging 
vice  cannibalism  is  almost  limited  in  the  Africa  of  1907  to  the 
innermost  Congo  basin. 

In  1883-5,  when  the  foundations  of  the  Independent  Congo 
State  were  being  laid,  Man,  as  an  article  of  food,  was  the 
dominating  idea  of  the  negro  populations  east  of  Stanley  Pool^ 
and  west  of  Tanganyika.  It  was  one  of  the  stimulants  of 
the  pre- Arab,  pre- European  slave  trade.  The  more  polished, 
Hamiticized  peoples  of  the  north  —  Manbettu,  Nyamnyam, 
Nsakara— were  as  much  addicted  to  devouring  human  flesh  as 
the  naked  neg-roes  of  the  central  ConQ-o. 

Bentley  writes  in  1890  (partly  with  reference  to  the  project 
of  establishing  a  big  mission  station  up  the  Mubangi  River)  : — 

"  The  whole  wide  country  from  the  Mubangi  to  Stanley  Falls  for 
six  hundred  miles  on  both  sides  of  the  main  river,  and  up  the  Mubangi 
as  well,  is  given  up  to  cannibalism.  This  is  a  bad  habit,  but  it  does  not 
necessarily  mark  out  the  natives  as  being  of  a  lower  type  than  others 
who  do  not  eat  human  flesh.  .  .  .  The  natives  of  Manyanga  and  else- 
where in  the  cataract  region  are  far  more  degraded  and  no  less  cruel 
and  wicked  than  the  wild  cannibals  of  the  Upper  Congo,  but  they 
would  scorn  the  idea  of  eating  human  flesh  as  much  as  we  should  do." 

Grenfell  records  over  and  over  again  between  1884  and 
1890  that  the  natives  of  the  upper  river  would  beg  him  to 
sell  some  of  his  Luango  or  Kru  boys  from  off  the  steamer. 
Coming  from  the  shore  of  the  great  salt  sea  they  must  be  very 
"sweet,"  very  appetizing.  When  he  protested,  they  would  say, 
"  You  eat  fowls  and  goats  and  we  eat  men  ;  what  is  the 
difference  ?  " 

The  son  of  Mata  Bwiki,  the  celebrated  Bangala  chief  of 
Liboko,  when  asked  if  he  had  ever  eaten  human  flesh,  said, 
"  Ah  !  I  wish  I  could  eat  everybody  on  earth  !  "  ^ 

Perhaps  cannibalism  was  carried  to  its  climax  of  develop- 
ment on  the  Mubangi  River. 

"  There  was  a  much  greater  demand  for  human  flesh  than  the  local 
markets  could  supply.    The  people  did  not,  as  a  rule,  eat  their  own 

'  Even  the  Bateke  practised  cannibalism  to  some  extent.  The  non-cannibal 
limit  on  the  south  was  possibly  the  Lunda  country  and  the  peoples  living  on  the  edge 
of  the  Zambezi  and  Luapula  basins. 

^  Bentley,  who  quotes  this  remark,  says  :  "  Vet  there  was  something  free  and 
lovable  about  many  of  these  wild  men  .  .  .  splendid  possibilities.  .  .  .  Bapulula,  the 
brother  of  that  fiend,  worked  for  us  for  two  years— a  fine,  bright,  intelligent  fellow. 
We  liked  him  very  much."    For  portrait  of  Bapulula  see  p.  113. 


400  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 

townsfolk  and  relatives  ;  but  they  kept  and  fattened  slaves  for  the 
butcher,  just  as  we  keep  cattle  and  poultry.  There  used  to  be  a  con- 
stant traffic  in  slaves  for  the  purpose  between  the  Lulongo  River  and 
the  Mubangi.  The  people  on  the  Lulongo  organized  raids  on  the 
upper  reaches  of  their  river,  or  landed  at  some  branch  to  raid  the  inland 
towns.  They  fought  the  unsuspecting  and  unprepared  people,  killed 
many  in  the  process,  and  brought  the  rest  home  with  them.  They 

divided  up  their  hu- 
man booty  and  kept 
them  in  their  towns, 
tied  up  and  starving, 
until  they  were  fortu- 
nate enough  to  catch 
or  buy  some  more, 
and  so  make  up  a 
cargo  worth  taking  to 
the  IMubangi.  When 
times  were  bad  these 
poor  starving  wretches 
might  often  be  seen 
tied  up  in  their  towns, 
just  kept  alive  with  a 
minimum  of  food.  A 
party  would  be  made 
up,  and  two  or  three 
canoes  would  be  filled 
with  these  human 
cattle.  They  would 
paddle  down  the  Lu- 
longo, cross  the  main 
river  when  the  wind 
was  not  blowing,  make 
up  the  Mubangi,  and 
sell  their  freight  in 
some  of  the  towns  for 
ivory.  The  purchasers 
would  then  feed  up 
their  starvelings  until 
217.  CAPTAIN  coQuiLHAT  AND  MATABwiKi,  CHIEF  OF  they  Were  fat  euough 
BANGALA  (ciRCA  1890)  for  the  market,  then 

butcher  them,  and  sell 

the  meat  in  small  joints.  What  was  left  over,  if  there  was  much  on  the 
market,  would  be  dried  on  a  rack  over  a  fire,  or  spitted,  and  the  end  of 
the  spit  stuck  in  the  ground  by  a  slow  fire,  until  it  could  be  kept  for 
weeks  and  sold  at  leisure. 

"  Sometimes  a  section  of  the  town  would  club  together  to  buy  a 
large  piece  of  the  body  wholesale,  to  be  retailed  out  again  ;  or  a  family 
man  would  buy  a  whole  leg  to  divide  up  between  his  wives,  children, 
and  slaves.  Dear  little  bright-eyed  boys  and  girls  grew  up  accustomed 
to  these  scenes  from  day  to  day.  They  ate  their  own  morsels  from 
time  to  time  in  the  haphazard  way  they  have,  and  carried  the  rest  of 


BEFORE  THE  WHITE  MAN  RULED  401 


their  portion  in  their  hand,  on  a  skewer  or  in  a  leaf  lest  anyone  should 
steal  and  eat  it.    That  is  how  cannibals  are  made." ' 

When  Grenfell  returned  from  his  first  journey  on  the 
Mubangi  and  reported  the  abundance  amongst  the  natives  of 
copper  rhigs  and  bracelets  and  of  ivory,  the  traders  who  were 
beofinnine  to  ascend  the  Conoo  sent  agents  on  their  steamers 
to  this  river  with  ingots  of  copper  with  which  to  purchase  the 
ivory.     But  for  a  long  time  to  come  the  natives  refused  to  sell 
ivory  for  any  form  of  trade  goods  ;  all  they  asked  for  was 
slaves,  "  people 
to  eat !  They 
wanted  meat, 
not  brass  wire 
or   copper  in- 
gots, beads, 
cloth,  or  even 
satin.    .    .  . 
There  was 
ivory  in  abund- 
ance, but  it  was 
only  to  be  ex- 
changed for 
human  flesh." 

Partly 
through  these 
expeditions,  the 
1  o  n  g  -  es  t  a  b- 
lished  trade  in 
slaves  for  food 
between  the 

far-distant  Lulon^o  River  and  the  lower  Mubang-i  was  dis- 
covered,  and  the  Congo  State  from  about  1887  posted 
steamers  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mubangri  and  elsewhere  and 
soon  brought  this  traffic  to  an  end.  One  of  the  Bangala 
chiefs  visited  by  Bentley  in  1887  had  already  killed  and 
eaten  seven  of  his  wives — not  selfishly,  because  he  had  bidden 
the  relations  to  each  feast  in  turn,  so  that  there  was  no 
family  unpleasantness.  On  the  Aruwimi,  down  to  about  1892, 
incessant  raids  were  made  by  one  village  against  another  to 
catch  people  for  the  cannibal  feasts. 

"In  Ibuti's  country,  Bangala "  (writes  Grenfell  in  1894), 
"  when  a  woman  bears  a  child  her  husband  buys  a  slave,  kills 

'  From  a  report  to  the  Baptist  Mission  which  is  embodied  in  Fw/ieeri>ii^  on  Ihe  Congo. 
I. —  2  D 


218.  A  BIG  CANOE  ON  THE  UPPER  CONGO,  OF  THE  TYPE 
THAT  USED  TO  CARRY  SLAVES  FROM  THE  LULONGO  TO 
THE  MUBANGI 


402   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


him,  and  has  the  meat  dried  to  serve  as  food  for  his  wife,  who 
during  the  early  period  of  lactation  may  not  go  outside  the 
house." 

In  1898  Grenfell  writes  : — 

"  At  the  market  on  the  peninsula  opposite  Isangi  (Lomami  mouth) 
a  few  days  ago  five  women  were  killed  and  one  Isangi  man — some 
quarrel  between  Topoke  and  Lokele.  The  women  were  eaten.  A 
good  deal  of  unrest  is  said  to  exist,  and  several  carriers  between  here 
and  Lopori  have  been  killed  and  eaten  quite  recently.  White  men  and 
their  escorts  are  not  interfered  with,  but  small  parties  are  snapped  up 
without  mercy.  .  .  . 

"  Though  not  cannibals  themselves,  the  Bopoto  people  do  not 
refuse  to  supply  with  meat  their  cannibal  neighbours  in  the  interior. 
In  February  1890  they  killed  a  woman  at  Bopoto  for  some  mis- 
demeanour and  cut  her  head  off  and  kept  it,  but  they  exchanged  the 
body  with  the  Ngombe  people  at  the  back  for  the  price  of  a  couple  of 
boys." 

Although  Grenfell  denies  that  the  Bapoto  of  the  northern 
Congo  bank  are  man-eaters,  Belgian  explorers  declare  them 
to  be  so,  though  not  to  the  same  frantic  extent  as  the  far- 
spread  Ngombe  tribes  and  the  Bangala.  The  Bapoto  refrain 
— gallantly — from  eating  women,  declaring  them  to  be  "too 
valuable." 

On  the  lower  Mubanori  women  are  not  admitted  to  cannibal 
feasts  as  participants,  but  they  are  (or  were,  since  much  of 
these  horrors  are  now  at  an  end)  valued  greatly  as  the  material 
of  the  banquet.  The  Buaka  and  Banziri  of  the  north-western 
Mubangi  preferred  the  flesh  of  women  and  infants,  "  without, 
however,  despising  that  of  prisoners  of  war  and  of  male  slaves." 

South  of  the  northern  Congo,  along  the  Ruki-Juapa  River, 
a  favourite  dish  was  a  paste  made  of  human  blood  and  manioc 
Hour. 

All  the  tribes  (without  exception)  of  the  Mubangi-Wele 
River  and  its  affluents  are  or  were  cannibals  as  far  as  the 
northernmost  limits  of  the  Congo  basin.  The  Nsakara,  how- 
ever, when  the  white  man  came  on  the  scene,  were  beginning 
to  limit  their  man-eatino-  to  the  victims  sacrificed  on  the  grraves 
of  chiefs,  consuming  these  holocausts  of  slaughtered  slaves  in 
.elaborate  feasts  which  lasted  several  days. 

Among  the  Azande  or  Nyamnyam  the  flesh  of  the  dead 
and  of  those  who  have  fallen  in  battle  is  much  appreciated. 
They  are  proud  of  gathering  into  necklaces  the  teeth  of  the 
victims  they  have  eaten.  Schweinfurth,  Junker,  and  so  many- 
other  travellers  have  written  on  the  cannibalism  of  the  Nyam- 


BEFORE  THE  WHITE  MAN  RULED  403 


nyam  (whose  very  name  is  at  once  the  evidence  of  their  car- 
nivorous lust  and  of  the  farthest  extension  northwards  of  the 
ancient  Bantu  vocable  "Nyama")  that  it  is  not  necessary  to 
expatiate  on  the  subject  unduly.  It  will,  however,  be  re- 
membered that  the  Nyamnyam  irregulars  who  served  under 
Gessi  Pasha  against  the  Nubian  slave-traders  of  the  Bahr-al- 
Ghazal,  emulated  the  twenty-years-later  feats  of  the  Batetela 
Congo  soldiers  in  devouring  the  bodies  of  the  slain.  The 
Abanjia  Nyamnyam  of  the  northern  Mubangi  basin^  when 
their  country  first  came  under  Congo  State  rule  in  1892-8,  still 
carried  cannibalism  to  an  extreme — eating  "victims  of  every 
age,  especially  old  men,  who  are,  by  reason  of  their  weakness, 
an  easier  prey.  A  human  body  was  never  rejected  as  unfit  for 
consumption  unless  death  was  due  to  a  horrible  skin  disease." 
Accordinor  to  Belgian  records,  '  human  fat  serves  among-  the 
Azande  for  numerous  purposes,  but  the  natives  declare  it  in- 
toxicates those  who  take  too  much  of  it.'  I  believe  Schwein- 
furth  also  records  a  similar  statement. 

Among"  the  Maiibettu  and  Mabode,  "  the  bodies  of  enemies 
slain  on  the  battlefield  are  immediately  divided  among  the  con- 
querors and  cut  up  in  long  slices,  which  are  boiled  and  carried 
off  by  way  of  provisions.  The  prisoners  are  brought  to  the 
village,  penned  up  just  like  herds,  and  kept  for  future  require- 
ments." 

The  Ngombe  tribes  of  Bwela,  Buja,  and  other  districts  behind 
Bopoto,  besides  those  dwelling  between  the  north  bank  of 
the  Congo  and  the  Lopori,  are  also  great  man-eaters. 

"  They  cut  up  and  retail  the  bodies  of  their  victims  with  the  skill 
of  a  perfect  butcher.  It  often  happens  that  the  poor  creature  destined 
for  the  knife  is  exposed  for  sale  in  the  market.  He  walks  to  and  fro 
and  epicures  come  to  examine  him.  They  describe  the  parts  they 
prefer,  one  the  arm,  one  the  leg,  breast,  or  head.  The  portions  which 
are  purchased  are  marked  off  with  lines  of  coloured  ochre.  When  the 
entire  body  is  sold,  the  wretch  is  slain  and  stoically  submits  to  his 
fate."  (Torday.) 

Perhaps,  however,  the  first  place  in  this  Chapter  of  Horrors 
must  be  given  to  the  Basoko  or  Bazoko  of  the  northern  Con^o 
and  the  lower  Aruwimi  and  to  the  Manyema  (Bakusu)  to  the 
east  of  the  Lualaba-Cong-o.  The  Basoko  eat  the  dead  as  well 
as  those  who  are  specially  killed  for  the  feast.  Only  the  chiefs 
are  allowed  to  rest  in  their  graves  ;  all  other  persons — except 
they  die  of  infectious  or  disgusting  diseases — are  cooked  and 
eaten,  not  buried.  "The  Basoko  prefer  the  flesh  of  the  thighs 
and  breast.    They  cut  this  off  in  strips  and  eat  small  pieces 


404  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


raw,  threading  the  longer  strips  on  skewers  and  drying  and 
smoking  the  jerked  meat  before  a  fire.  They  also  pickle 
human  meat  in  jars  with  salt,  or  blend  it  and  cover  it  with  a 
grease  resembling  lard  and  used  for  the  same  purpose."^  The 
Basoko  eat  women  as  well  as  men,  but  usually  confine  them- 
selves to  young  girls  or  elderly  matrons  who  have  ceased 
child-bearinor. 

The  Manyema  practise  a  still  more  repulsive  form  of 
cannibalism.    They  readily  eat  the  corpses  of  those  who  have 


219.  NGOMBE  PEOPLE  OF  BWELA,  BETWEEN  THE  NORTH  CONGO  AND  THE 
TRIBUTARIES  OF  THE  MONGALA  RIVER 
Much  given  to  cannibalism  until  recently. 


died  of  disease,  but  only  like  bodies  "high."  They  soak  them 
in  running  water  till  the  flesh  is  macerated  and  almost  putrid, 
and  then  eat  this  disgusting  carrion  without  further  preparation, 
not  even  cooking  it.  In  this  way  they  acquire  a  repulsive 
odour  so  characteristic  of  their  country  (between  the  Lualaba- 
Congo  and  N.W.  Tanganyika)  as  to  have  given  rise  to  the 
cant  term  "bouquet  de  Manyema."^ 

Cannibalism,  as  already  stated,  extends  from  the  west 
coast  of  Tanganyika  (north  of  the  Lukuga  River)  to  the 
Kwango  in  its  lower  or  northern  course.     The  practice,  how- 

'  Torday,  from  Belgian  Reports. 


BEFORE  THE  WHITE  MAN  RULED  405 


ever,  is  extinct  among  the  Marungu  (Tabwa)  peoples  and  the 
Bemba  and  all  the  tribes  south  of  the  7th  degree  of  S. 
Latitude.  It  no  longer  exists,  for  example,  amongst  the  Lunda 
or  the  Kioko.  But  the  Basongo,  Bakete,  Batetela,  and  some 
of  the  Baluba  are  man-eaters. 

As  regards  the  Baluba,  though  the  practice  is  dying  out 
as  a  public  custom,  it  still  lingers  as  a  masonic,  fetishistic  rite. 

The  following  account,  derived  from  the  writings  of  Catholic 
missionaries  on  the  Kasai-Lulua,  has  been  compiled  by  Mr. 
E.  Torday  : — 

"  Here  are  some  notes  about  the  brotherhood  of  the  '  Bakanzanzi ' 
or  cannibals.  Though  the  Baluba  have  the  reputation  of  eating  human 
flesh,  still  they  do  not  all  do  so,  but  only  those  who  are  initiated  into 
the  Bakanzanzi  sect. 

"  When  a  Muluba  wishes  to  become  a  member  of  it,  urged  by  a 
desire  to  take  part  in  the  horrible  feast,  or  in  order  to  rid  himself  of 
the  nightly  importunities  of  some  returning  spirit  [who  formerly  be- 
longed to  the  ghoulish  brotherhood],  he  seeks  one  of  the  members,  offers 
him  a  small  gift,  and  asks  to  be  introduced  into  the  brotherhood.  The 
person  applied  to  should  act  as  his  sponsor,  or  as  it  is  called  here, 
'  father  of  the  fetishes.' 

"  At  the  next  meeting  of  the  guild,  the  sponsor  lays  on  the  ground 
the  leaves  of  various  trees,  dried  clots  of  blood,  fragments  of  human 
bones,  and  the  body  of  a  goliath  beetle.  He  then  introduces  the 
young  aspirant,  presents  him  with  the  handle  of  a  hatchet,  bids  him 
rest  one  end  on  the  leaves  and  spin  round,  while  seizing  the  other  end 
in  both  hands.  Soon  the  aspirant  becomes  giddy  and  falls.  The 
initiated  lift  him,  bind  round  his  brow  a  crown  of  human  bones,  and 
rub  his  body  vigorously  with  oil  and  various  magical  ingredients  till 
his  fainting  fit  has  ended.  Then  they  dress  him  again  in  his  best  cloth, 
cover  all  his  head  with  feathers  and  go  outside.  An  old  member  of  the 
company  at  once  proceeds  to  prepare  a  thick  mess  of  tapioca  (manioc 
flour),  a  hen,  and  a  little  smoked  human  flesh,  puts  all  these  in  an 
inverted  skull,  places  on  either  side  the  large  bones  of  a  human  leg, 
and  lays  the  whole  lot  on  the  ground  between  the  new  member  and  his 
sponsor,  who  find  themselves  squatting  face  to  face  on  a  rush  mat. 
The  sponsor  then  takes  a  portion  of  the  tapioca  mess,  soaked  in  the 
stew  of  human  flesh  and  fowl,  and  several  times  rubs  with  it  the 
tongue  of  the  neophyte,  as  if  to  accustom  him  to  it,  then  makes  him 
swallow,  bit  by  bit,  all  the  contents  of  the  skull-bowl.  Now  the  aspirant 
is  fortified  against  the  power  of  returning  spirits  to  injure  him,  in  case 
he  should  wish  to  violate  the  tombs  of  the  dead  and  taste  their  flesh. 
Henceforth  he  will  be  able  to  take  part  in  the  cannibal  dances.  The 
sponsor  receives  immediately  one  or  two  fowls  for  his  trouble,  and 
every  one  dances  the  reel  of  the  Bakanzanzi. 

"  [There  is  yet  another  way  of  making  the  new  member  giddy.  His 
sponsor  makes  some  slight  scratches  on  his  chest  and  back,  into  which 
he  rubs  a  magic  concoction  ;  then  he  hurls  at  his  chest  an  arrow  filled 
with  the  same  ingredients,  while  his  companions  throw  over  his  back  a 


4o6   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


shower  of  red  fruit.  The  victim  immediately  falls  in  a  swoon.  They 
then  proceed  as  described  above.] 

"  After  a  longer  or  shorter  period,  the  aspirant  desires  to  become 
initiated  further  into  the  more  secret  rites.  His  sponsor  accordingly 
summons  all  the  members  of  the  sect,  goes  into  the  dwelling  of  his  pupil, 
with  all  his  talismans  and  fetishes,  and  binds  round  his  brow  a  crown  of 
miiku7ikuli  fruit.  At  nightfall,  both  wash  themselves  with  a  purifying 
water  in  which  various  medicinal  plants  have  been  steeped,  then  go  forth 
into  the  forest  to  find  a  grave,  quickly  uncover  the  corpse,  carry  it  away 
at  full  speed  to  the  river  to  wash  it,  and  thence  return  to  the  village, 
while  repeating  without  a  pause  these  words,  "  Mukoke,  Mulete  !  Pull  ! 
drag ! "  They  place  the  corpse  in  a  dwelling  and  lie  down  on  either 
side.  When  day  breaks  they  put  the  body  outside  on  a  mat.  The 
sponsor  then  seats  himself  on  a  drum  holding  his  neophyte  to  his  side, 
and  bids  the  members  build  all  round  them  a  hedge  of  rush  mats. 
There,  sheltered  from  prying  looks,  he  discloses  to  his  pupil  the 
secrets  of  the  sect,  the  art  of  making  magic  remedies,  talismans  for 
attack  and  defence,  and  confers  on  him  fresh  immunity  from  ghosts  and 
■wicked  spirits,  by  means  of  carefully  mixed  ingredients,  enclosed  in  a 
buffalo's  horn. 

"  In  the  meantime  an  old  member  of  the  society  has  prepared  the 
mess  of  tapioca  and  human  flesh  described  above,  places  it  at  the  end 
of  his  wooden  spoon,  and  cautiously  slips  it  inside  the  improvised  house. 
When  the  aspirant  has  learnt  everything,  the  mats  are  removed  and  both 
enter  into  another  dwelling  to  proceed  with  a  new  rite.  At  the  com- 
mand of  his  sponsor  the  new  member  takes  in  a  gourd  filled  with 
kaolin  (white  clay),  and  a  little  dust,  and  whitens  all  his  body  while 
without  the  drums  beat  furiously.  In  this  way  he  fills  himself  with  the 
qualities  of  the  spirit  Mande,  tutelary  deity  of  this  sect,  who  is  sup- 
posed to  dwell  in  that  gourd.  One  of  the  members  seizes  in  his  left 
hand  a  small  shield  covered  with  genet  skin  [which  has  the  quality 
of  rendering  one  invulnerable],  and  in  his  right  a  spear.  The  aspirant 
in  his  turn  seizes  a  human  skull  and  a  spear.  Both  dance  a  reel,  come 
before  the  sponsor,  and  pass  between  his  legs  ;  after  which  the  skull  is 
broken  to  small  pieces  and  divided  among  all  the  performers.  The  new 
initiate  receives  a  part  like  the  rest  which  he  carefully  carries  away  to 
his  house.  This  will  be  his  principal  talisman.  He  will  no  longer  fear 
returning  spirits  or  evil  spells,  and  will  henceforth  be  able  to  take  part 
in  the  dances  and  feasts  of  the  cannibals. 

"In  what  do  these  feasts  consist?  They  have  been  described  as 
follows  : — 

"  When  the  Bakanzanzi  have  succeeded  in  getting  possession  of  a 
human  corpse,  they  gather  together  at  the  confines  of  the  village,  or 
by  preference  on  the  banks  of  the  neighbouring  river,  and  there,  with- 
out avoiding  the  gaze  of  the  onlookers,  they  divest  the  body  of  its  skin, 
which  they  throw  on  the  fire  with  the  clots  of  blood.  They  next  cut  the 
body  down  the  middle  to  the  loins  and  take  off  the  head.  The  legs  and 
thighs  are  given  to  the  old  men,  the  torso  upper  part  to  the  young 
recruits,  and  the  head  and  feet  to  the  chief  of  the  band.  Each  group 
makes  an  equal  division  among  its  members,  who  string  their  portions 
on  sticks  and  put  them  to  smoke  over  slow  fires,  preserving  a  part 


BEFORE  THE  WHITE  MAN  RULED  407 


for  the  feast  of  the  day.  This  last  is  cooked  in  a  large  earthen  pot. 
A  woman  (for  women  are  admitted  to  the  sect)  has  taken  care  to 
bring  and  to  prepare  some  manioc  flour. 

"  When  all  is  ready,  each  comes  in  turn  to  take  his  portion  quickly 
and  swallow  it,  running  and  imitating  the 
cry  of  the  hyaena,  before  returning  to  his 
place. 

"  The  chief  of  the  band  is  seated  apart. 
While,  with  the  utmost  unconcern,  he  is 
boiling  in  a  pot  the  victim's  head,  he  divests 
of  their  skin  the  two  feet  which  have  been 
given  him,  cooks  and  eats  them  with  de- 
liberation. 

"All  this  time  the  drums  beat  furiously, 
and  the  brotherhood,  now  satiated,  give 
themselves  up  to  a  frenzied  dance.  After 
this  they  burn  part  of  the  bones,  and  catch 
the  cinders  in  a  small  pot,  on  which  they 
set  a  larger  pot  upside  down.  A  pin  at- 
tached to  the  inside  of  the  under  one  is 
fastened  by  a  cord  to  a  branch  fixed  in  the 
ground  and  bent  in  a  bow  ;  in  this  way  the 
victim's  soul  is  supposed  to  be  imprisoned. 
Meantime  the  chief  has  removed  the  flesh 
from  the  head,  has  carefully  rubbed  oil  into 
it,  burnt  the  brain,  and  slaughtered  a  white 
hen  to  appease  the  dead  man's  soul.  The 
hollow  of  the  skull  is  carried  away  to  be 
used  for  magic  remedies.  After  this  ghastly 
performance  the  whole  of  the  abominable 
troupe  proceed  to  carry  on  the  dance  at  the 
village. 

"  There  are  various  ways  in  which  the 
Bakanzanzi  obtain  human  flesh.  Enemies 
slain  in  battle,  or  useless  prisoners,  such  as 
old  men  and  village  chiefs,  victims  of  the 
trial  by  poison,  are  generally  made  over  to 
them,  either  gratis  or  for  some  service. 
When  there  is  a  deficiency  of  these,  they 
proceed  to  violate  graves,  to  rob  them  of 
their  dead.  This  is  frequently  done,  and 
particularly  in  the  case  of  slaves  and  persons  of  small  standing.  When 
a  cannibal  has  succeeded  in  following  the  track  of  a  funeral  procession, 
or  if  he  has  discovered  by  chance  a  new  grave,  he  hastens  to  inform 
some  of  the  brotherhood.  They  all  go  by  stealth  to  disinter  the  corpse, 
fill  up  the  ditch  with  earth,  branches,  and  grass,  and  arrange  everything 
in  such  a  way  that  no  trace  is  visible.  They  at  once  hasten  to  wash 
the  body  at  the  river,  and  assemble  for  the  feast." 


220 

A  MASK  WORN  BY  MEMBERS 
OF  A  BALUBA  BROTHER- 
HOOD IN  CEREMONIAL 
DANCES 

(Torday  collection.) 


CHAPTER  XVII 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE 

I.     ITS  FOUNDATION 

A  S  already  mentioned  earlier  in  this  book,  the  King  of  the 
/  \  Belgians  practically  started  the  movement  which  led 
A.  V  to  the  foundation  of  the  Congo  Independent  State  by 
summoning  a  conference  in  September  1876  to  sit  at  Brussels 
under  his  own  presidency,  and  with  M.  Emile  Banning  as 
Secretary.  This  conference  was  to  create  an  International 
Association  for  the  Exploration  and  Civilization  of  Central 
Africa,  with  the  special  objects  of  abolishing  the  slave  trade, 
minimising  rivalry  or  privilege  as  between  different  religious 
bodies,  and  making  a  vast  Free  Trade  area  in  which  the 
commerce  of  all  nations  should  receive  equal  treatment.  Be- 
tween 1876  and  1883,  King  Leopold  received  the  special 
adhesion  [and  to  a  small  degree  monetary  help]  for  the  general 
objects  of  his  International  Association  from  the  Baroness 
Burdett-Coutts,  Sir  William  Mackinnon,  Mr.  Albert  Grey 
(afterwards  Earl  Grey),  Cardinal  Manning,  and  some  other 
English  men  and  women. 

But  his  International  Association  gradually  segregated  into 
a  number  of  National  Committees.    That  of  Enoland  sent 

o 

forth  Keith  Johnston,  and  one  of  the  greatest  of  African 
explorers,  Joseph  Thomson,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society.  Consciously  or  unconsciously,  the  efforts 
of  these  British  explorers  were  tinged  with  the  desire  to  bring 
East  Africa  under  British  political  influence,  and  so  far  as 
Joseph  Thomson  was  concerned  his  journeys  gave  direct  rise 
to  the  creation  of  British  East  Africa  and  the  northern  part  of 
British  Central  Africa.^ 

The  French  Committee  soon  employed  De  Brazza  and 
other  travellers  to  create  French  Conoo;  the  Italians  worked 
geographically  and  politically  in  Shoa  and  the  region  south  of 
Abyssinia  ;  the  Portuguese  between  Angola  and  Mo9ambique  ; 

'  For  both  of  which  the  present  writer  made  the  first  treaties. 

408 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE 


and  the  Germans  devoted  their  eneroies  with  remarkable 
scientific  results  to  the  exploration  of  the  regions  between 
Tanganyika  and  the  Portuguese  West  African  possessions. 

As  reo"ards  Rel""ium,  her  National  Committee,  as  a  branch 
of  the  International  Association,  was  founded  in  November 
1876,  and  in  October  1877  the  Belgians  despatched  their  first 
expedition  under  the  command  of  Captain  Crespel  to  East 
Africa,  to  what  were  then  considered  the  dominions  of  the 
Sultan  of  Zanzibar. 

The  Belgian  explorers  between  1877  and  1879  gradually- 
advanced  towards  the  Tanganyika,  and  on  the  15th  of  August 
in  that  year  Captain  Cambier  founded  the  station  of  Karema 
on  the  south-east  coast  of  that  lake,  now  a  flourishing  mission 
of  the  White  Fathers. 

All  these  efforts  of  the  Belgians  in  the  direction  of  Tangan- 
yika were — between  1877  and  1881 — mal  vus  on  the  part  of 
the  British,  whether  or  not  these  feelings  were  avowed  officially. 
It  was  always  assumed  in  those  days  that  the  enormous  per- 
sonal influence  of  Sir  John  Kirk,  as  representative  of  Great 
Britain  for  many  years  at  Zanzibar,  must  of  necessity  result  in 
the  erection  of  that  Sultanate  into  a  vast  British  East  African 
sphere  of  influence,  wherein  the  Sultan  and  his  Arab  ministers 
might  continue  to  rule,  but  under  the  direction  and  advice  of  a 
British  Resident.  That  this  position  could  ever  be  seriously 
contested  by  any  Power  but  France  was  not  then  thought 
possible  ;  when  the  time  was  ripe,  no  doubt  some  arrangement 
could  be  come  to  with  France  which  would  permit  British  in- 
fluence over  these  regions  to  be  more  directly  defined  on  paper. 

Still,  the  obvious  colonizino-  movements  of  the  Belsfians  in 
1879  and  1880  inspired  apprehension. 

But  this  feeling  was  soon  to  be  allayed  by  the  more  direct 
expression  of  Belgian  ambitions.  In  November  1878  there 
was  founded  at  the  Palace  of  Brussels  the  Committee  for 
examining  the  regions  of  the  Upper  Congo,  under  the 
presidency  of  Colonel  Strauch.^  By  February  1879  Stanley 
definitely  entered  the  service  of  this  Committee  at  Brussels, 
and  in  August  of  that  year  commenced  the  creation  of  the 
Congo  Independent  State, 

^  General  Strauch  (as  he  became)  was  a  distinguished  Belgian  officer  of  high 
character.  He  was  animated  by  the  most  genuinely  philanthropic  feelings  towards 
the  Negro,  and  a  desire  to  undertake  the  amelioration  of  Africa  without  thought 
of  gain  either  for  himself  or  for  his  country.  He  was  Administrator-General  of  the 
Congo  State  from  1885  to  i888.  The  present  writer  had  numerous  conferences 
with  him  at  one  time  on  the  subject  of  the  creation  of  a  great  independent  African 
state  in  the  heart  of  the  Congo  basin  which  should  become  a  Liberia  on  broader 
lines. 


4IO   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


The  subsequent  history  of  this  movement  under  Stanley  has 
already  been  touched  on  quite  sufficiently  for  the  purposes  of 
this  book.^  From  its  inception  in  1879  to  the  recognition  of  the 
Congo  Independent  State  in  1884,  it  was  almost  entirely  supported 
by  the  contributions  of  the  King  of  the  Belgians,  who  was  under- 
stood to  be  devoting  to  this  purpose,  besides  personal  funds,  the 
large  invested  sum  which  should  have  been  the  fortune  of  his 
deceased  son  had  he  lived  to  reach  his  majority.     It  is  also 


221.  THE  ATLANTIC  ASPECT  OF  THE  BEACH  AT  BANANA  POINT,  CONGO  MOUTH 
Banana  Point,  the  main  seaport  of  the  Belgian  Congo,  was  not  acquired  bj*  the  Slate  until  1885. 


understood  that  when  the  enterprise  assumed  a  more  directly 
Belgian  aspect  in  1887  King  Leopold  returned  to  the  various 

^  This  note  may  be  useful  for  reference  in  connection  with  the  dates  of  Stanley's 
operations  : — 

Comite  d'Etudes  du  Haut  Congo  was  founded  in  December  1878.  Stanley 
arrived  at  Banana  on  the  14th  of  August  1879,  bringing  with  him  the  En  Avaut 
the  Royal.    The  Eti  Avant  was  forty-three  feet  by  eight,  and  the  Royal  thirty  feet 
by  six. 

Vivi  was  founded  September  1879,  Isangila  January  1881,  Neve  on  January  26 
1881.  Manyanga  was  founded  in  May  1881.  Stanley  reached  Stanley  Pool  July  27 
1881.  Leopoldville  was  founded  December  1881.  The  En  Avant  reached  Stanley 
Pool  in  November  1881.  On  the  19th  of  April  1882  a  steamer  first  starts  for  the 
upper  river.  In  May  1882  Lake  Leopold  was  discovered,  and  Bolobo  founded  at 
the  close  of  that  year  by  Captain  Hanssens.  In  August  1882  Stanley  returned  to 
England.  On  December  14  1882  he  returned  to  the  Congo,  reaching  Stanley  Pool 
in  March  1883.  On  the  9th  of  May  1883  the  A.I  A.,  the  En  Avant,  and  the  Royal 
left  Leopoldville  for  the  upper  river.  On  the  13th  of  June  Equatorville  was  founded 
under  Vangele  and  Coquilhat.  In  August  1883  Bolobo  was  burnt  to  the  ground.  On 
the  22nd  of  September  Glave  w^as  left  at  Lukolela.  On  the  21st  of  October  Liboko 
was  reached.  On  the  ist  of  December  1883  Stanley  Falls  station  was  founded,  with 
Binnie  in  charge.    Stanley  returned  to  England  in  June  1884. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE  413 

British  contributors  in  the  form  of  bonds  with  deferred  interest 
the  sums  which  they  had  advanced  towards  what  was  originally 
an  international  experiment.  [The  total  outside  contributions 
were  computed  at  ^16,888.] 

That  the  intention  of  the  Kingf  of  the  Belgrians  in  those 
days  was  purely  philanthropic — and  even  to  a  great  extent 
international — may  be  realized  by  his  appointment  of  the  high- 
minded  Sir  Frederic  Goldsmid  as  his  first  Commissioner  (July 
1883),  and  by  the  subsequent  designation  of  General  Gordon 
{January  i  1884)  as  his  Agent-General  on  the  Congo.  Gordon 
being  called  away  from  this  task  of  creating'  a  vast  free  negro 
state  in  the  Congo  basin  by  the  superior  claims  of  the  Egyptian 
Sudan,  Sir  Francis  De  Winton,  also  a  British  officer  of  dis- 
tinction, was  nominated  instead,  and  was  the  first  Administrator- 
General  of  the  State  from  June  1884  to  the  end  of  1885.^ 

Up  to  this  period,  the  constitution  of  the  State  in  the 
selection  of  officers  of  his^h  commands  had  been  so  Enolish  in 
complexion  as  to  have  given  umbrage  to  France.  It  was  not 
an  unreasonable  step  therefore  that  once  his  State  had  received 
international  recognition  King  Leopold  should  desire  to  be 
represented  on  the  Congo  by  a  Belgian.  Consequently 
M.  Camile  Janssen  succeeded  Sir  Francis  De  Winton  in 
the  principal  post  at  the  end  of  1885.  M.  Janssen  for  some 
period  of  his  government  was  represented  at  Stanley  Pool  and 
elsewhere  in  the  inner  basin  of  the  Congo  by  an  Administrator 
or  Vice-Governor,  Baron  von  Nimptsch.  M.  Janssen  was 
succeeded  in  1891  by  General  Wahis  (now  Baron  Wahis),  who 
is  practically  still,  at  the  time  of  writing,  the  Governor-General 
of  this  vast  domain. 

During  the  period  of  government  of  M.  Janssen  the  Congo 
Independent  State  was  in  rather  a  weak  condition,  and  Belgian 
rule  was  to  a  certain  extent  cut  athwart  by  Stanley's  Emin  Pasha 
Relief  Expedition,  the  King-Sovereign  having  entrusted  cer- 
tain powers  to  Stanley  (who  remained  to  the  day  of  his  death 
associated  with  the  Congo  State)  to  settle  the  Arab  difficulty 
in  eastern  Congroland. 

In  some  respects  it  may  be  said  that  the  really  direct  Belgian 
government  of  the  Congo  scarcely  commenced  until  the  as- 
sumption of  power  by  Baron  Wahis  in  April  1891. 

But  from  the  departure  of  Sir  Francis  De  Winton  in  1885 
down  to  the  present  day  there  has  been  one  element  of  great 
weakness  in  the  Belgian  direction  of  affairs  :  the  administrative 

'  Sir  Francis  De  Winton  proclaimed  the  independence  and  constitution  of  the 
Congo  State  at  Banana,  July  19  1885. 


414   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


capital  has  been  at  Boma  on  the  Lower  Congo,  close  to  the 
sea,  and  not — where  it  should  have  been,  at  least  from  the  date 
of  the  opening  of  the  railway — at  Leopoldville,  on  Stanley  Pool, 
or  even  farther  inland,  at  some  commanding  position  on  the 
main  Congo. 

From  the  commencement  of  the  Cataract  region  west  of 
Stanley  Pool,  onwards  to  the  coast,  the  territories  of  the  Congo 
State  constitute  little  more  than  a  line  of  communication 
with  the  ocean.  The  Belgian  surroundings  of  Boma  are  re- 
stricted ;  all  the  questions  of  the  Cataract  region  are  relatively 


223.   THE  POST  OFFICE  AT  BOMA 


trivial  compared  to  the  gigantic  issues  which  begin  at  Stanley 
Pool  and  end  on  the  Semliki  and  on  the  west  coast  of  Tangan- 
yika. It  is  probable  that  we  should  have  heard  very  little  of 
Con^o  atrocities  if  the  Governor-General  had  resided  with  all 
his  staff  around  him  on  the  Upper  Congo.  Seeing  is  believing. 
Far  away  at  Boma,  with  his  face  turned  towards  the  ocean 
[distant  a  few  hours'  steaming],  and  three  hundred  miles  of  dis- 
agreeable, rocky  country  traversed  by  a  steamer  trip  and  two 
days'  railway  journey  intervening  between  the  Court  of  Boma 
and  the  beginning,  at  Stanley  Pool,  of  those  nine  thousand 
miles  of  river  and  lake  navioation — these  limitations  have  made 
it  scarcely  more  easy  for  the  Belgian  Governor-General  of  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE  415 


Congo  at  Boma  to  gauge  and  grapple  with  the  awful  problems 
that  must  be  raised  by  European  interference  with  the  lives  of 
millions  of  negroes  than  if  he  lived  at  Brussels,  and  merely 
acted  on  the  written  reports  of  his  subordinates. 

The  first  weakness  of  the  Congo  Government  was  the  ques- 
tion of  money.  King  Leopold — and  behind  him  the  Belgian 
nation — seemed  to  have  bitten  off  more  than  they  could  chew. 
They  had  undertaken  a  task  of  colossal  magnitude  in  African 
enterprise,  the  obligation  to  bring  under  effective  control 
nine  hundred  thousand  square  miles  of  territory  in  the  very 
heart  of  Africa,  of  which  nine-tenths  was  situated  at  a  distance 


224.   IIR-I    I  ( .NMKN  I    <i|    l\iiK\    FRO.M  ABOVE  STANLEY  I 


of  over  four  hundred  miles  from  the  Atlantic  coast,  or  at  least 
of  three  hundred  miles  from  the  navigable  reaches  of  the 
Lower  Congo.  The  mere  necessity  of  conveying  past  the 
cataracts  of  the  Congo  from  Matadi  to  Stanley  Pool  vast 
quantities  of  stores,  steamers  in  sections,  machinery,  arms  and 
ammunition,  and  food  supplies  by  means  of  human  porterage 
(in  the  main)  ran  away  with  twenty  thousand  pounds  yearly,  at 
least.  Then  the  foundation  of  stations  all  over  this  interior 
region,  the  salaries  of  the  Europeans,  the  raising  of  a  large 
military  force  which  must  receive  at  any  rate  some  pay,  good 
uniforms,  sufficient  rations,  and  be  well  armed — all  this  must 
have  meant  during  the  first  five  years  of  the  Congo  State's 
existence  a  heavy  drain  on  the   King's  exchequer — possibly 


4i6   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


some  fifty  or  sixty  thousand  pounds  a  year.  On  the  other  side 
of  the  balance  sheet,  there  could  be,  at  that  time,  only  miser- 
able sums  derived  from  export  duties,  and  such  objects  of 
immediately  realizable  value  as  were  to  be  found  in  the  Congo 
basin.  The  rage  for  rubber  had  not  begun.  The  one  asset  of 
value  that  the  Congo  State  possessed  was  ivory.  Ivory  was 
valuable  enough  to  pay  for  the  enormous  cost  of  transporting  it 
from  Stanley  Pool  to  the  navigable  regions  of  the  Lower  Congo 
and  yet  yield  a  profit.  So  the  State  practically  constituted  ivory 
a  royal  monopoly  in  the  inner  basin  of  the  Congo.  If  this  was 
not  expressecl  in  so  many  words,  it  represented  the  real  facts  of 
the  case  for  some  time  to  come.^ 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  Congo  State  at  this  period 
was  greatly  harassed  by  the  ambitions  of  limitrophe  Powers, 
and  was  forced  to  go  ahead  in  extending  its  posts  far  beyond 
the  limits  of  financial  prudence  in  order  to  keep  up  with  that 
drastic  condition  which  Bismarck  invented  (aimed  at  the 
Portuguese)  that  an  occupation  or  a  protectorate  must,  in  order 
to  be  recognized  by  other  Powers,  be  effective. 

The  French  "  empietaient  sur  les  droits  de  Leopold"  along 
the  Mubangi  River,  and  were  aiming  at  the  upper  Wele. 
Germany  was  commencing  to  look  across  Tanganyika  with 
the  intention  of  reviving  claims  to  special  interest  which  were 
commenced  by  the  journeys  of  Bohm,  Kaiser,  and  Reichard  ; 
and  Britain,  represented  officially  and  unofficially,  was  endeavour- 
ing to  take  advantage  of  the  undefined  southern  frontier  of  the 
Congo  Government  to  carry  her  South  African  Protectorates  as 
far  northwards  as  possible,  in  fact,  to  create  a  real  "  British 
Central  Africa"  in  regions  which  had  hitherto  known  no  Belgian, 
but  which  had  become  acquainted  with  the  British  in  such 
travellers  as  Livingstone,  Thomson,  Arnot,  and  Alfred  Sharpe. 

^  Grenfell's  journal  makes  several  references  to  raids  on  the  natives  for  their  ivory. 
Natives  were  forbidden  verbally  to  sell  ivory  to  anybody  but  the  Congo  State  officials, 
and  if  they  infringed  this  order  they  were  punished  and  their  ivory  was  confiscated. 

In  May  1890  Grenfell  complains  that  the  representative  of  the  State  at  Bumba 
(on  the  northern  Congo)  had  taken  to  firing  on  all  canoes  carrying  ivory  that  were 
bound  westwards,  while  he  also  prevented  canoes  going  eastwards  from  Bopoto  to 
purchase  ivory.  "  State  officers  having  a  commission  on  the  ivory  they  get,  it  makes 
them  keen  about  securing  all  they  can." 

Hodister  was  despatched  up  the  Mongala  River  to  buy  ivory  in  May  1890.  On 
the  19th  of  June  1894  Grenfell  writes  from  the  Aruwimi  River  :  "Some  thirty  tons  of 
Emin's  ivory  has  already  been  bought  from  Chief  (name  illegible),  who  says  it  belonged 
to  Emin.  More  reported  as  still  being  in  the  country.  What  will  be  the  result  of 
throwing  all  this  ivory  on  the  European  market  ?  As,  however,  the  State  is  reported 
to  have  sold  all  its  ivory  at  nineteen  francs  per  kilo  for  years  to  come,  it  is  not  regarded 
as  a  serious  matter  except  by  those  who  doubt  the  existence  of  the  reputed  contract. ' 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE  417 


So  that  the  problem  to  be  resolved  by  King  Leopold  was 
the  elementary  problem  of  all  that  afflict  human  society — how 
to  find  the  money  to  carry  out  his  schemes.  I 

The  basin  of  the  Congo  had  been  constituted  by  the 
Berlin  Conference  a  region  in  which  no  import  duties  could  be 
levied.  A  tax  on  exports  alone  would  never  supply  a  sufficient 
Customs  revenue  to  meet  the  cost  of  protection  and  adminis- 
tration. To  get  Europe  to  unsay  itself,  however,  it  was  as 
necessary  for  King  Leopold  then  as  it  has  been  for  many  a 
British  Minister  before  and  since  to  approach  the  question  from 
the  philanthropic  side.  The  British,  and  no  doubt  other 
nations,  felt  themselves  seriously  handicapped  at  the  moment 
by  the  inability  to  impose  import  duties  in  the  territories  which 
they  had  acquired  or  were  about  to  acquire  within  the  conven- 
tional basin  of  the  Congo.  So  the  representatives  of  the 
Powers  met  at  Brussels  in  1889-90  with  the  pretext  of  raising- 
funds  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade,  and  agreed  to 
amend  the  Act  of  Berlin  and  sanction  the  imposition  of  import 
duties  to  provide  funds  for  the  crusades  against  the  slave- 
trading  Arabs. 

The  General  Act  of  the  Brussels  Conference  was  signed  on 
the  2nd  of  July  1890,  but  owing  to  various  delays  the  ratifica- 
tion of  this  Act  did  not  take  place  till  the  i8th  of  March  1891, 
nor  was  it  put  in  force  till  April  1902.  The  opposition  which 
delayed  the  application  of  the  Act  came  from  Holland.  The 
powerful  Dutch  trading  house  on  the  Lower  Congo  had 
extended  its  operations  to  the  Upper  Congo  from  1883  on- 
wards, and  had  been  a  powerful  rival  of  the  Congo  State  in 
buying  ivory.  The  new  powers  entrusted  to  the  Congo  Inde- 
pendent State  might,  feared  the  Dutch  Government,  react  un- 
favourably on  Dutch  trade.  Probably  they  have  not  done  so, 
because  it  has  no  doubt  been  found  advisable  to  come  to  some 
composition  with  the  Dutch  Company. 

Meantime  Belgium  had  certainly  sprung  to  the  opportunities 
offered  by  King  Leopold's  enterprise.  A  young  Belgian  officer 
— Lieutenant  Thys — had  been  an  under-secretary  at  one  of  the 
early  conferences  on  the  subject  of  the  Congo,  and  with  some 
associates  had  founded  in  December  1886  a  commercial  and 
industrial  company  to  deal  with  the  development  of  the  Congo, 
and  more  especially  to  commence  the  necessary  surveys  for 
a  railway  to  unite  Stanley  Pool  with  the  Lower  Congo. 
Captain  Thys  also  joined  in  an  important  commercial  expedi- 
tion to  the  Kasai  which  sailed  from  Antwerp  in  May  1887  to 
acquire  concessions  for  development  in  the  interior  of  the 

I. — 2  E 


4i8   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Congo  basin.  In  one  way  and  another  Antwerp  was  awaking 
to  Congo  possibilities.  These  influences  reacting  on  the 
Belgian  Legislature,  induced  the  House  of  Representatives  in 
1887  to  authorize  the  emission  of  a  Congo  Loan  of  ^6,000,000.^ 
The  railway  from  Matadi  to  Stanley  Pool  was  commenced 
on  the  4th  of  November  1888.  Its  prosecution  was  assisted  by 
further  direct  help  from  Belgium,  by  the  passing  of  a  law 
authorizing  the  Belgian  Government  to  subscribe  ^400,000 
towards  the  foundation  of  the  Congo  Railway  Company,  an 
association  which  came  into  existence  with  a  capital  of  one 


225.  RAILWAY  STATION,  MATADI,  LOOKING  DOWN  THE  RIVER 
(On  the  promontory  to  the  left  are  the  buildings  of  the  B.M.S.  Base  Station.) 


million  sterling  on  the  31st  of  July  1889,  and  actually  com- 
menced the  construction  of  the  line  in  March  1890. 

The  year  1888  was  signalized  by  the  military  occupation  of 
Stanley  Falls  under  Vangele  and  Van  Kerckhoven.  In  1889 
Vangele,  G.  Le  Marinel,  and  Hanolet  established  Belgian  rule 
on  the  upper  Mubangi  (Banzyville,  the  farthest  post)  ;  and  in 
December  of  this  year  Lieutenant  le  Clement  de  Saint-Marcq 
was  stationed  with  the  Arabs  at  Kasongo  as  Resident. 

In  1890  there  was  much  expansion.  Hodister  explored  the 
upper  Mongala "  and  the  region  between  the  upper  Lomami 
and  the  Lualaba.    Vangele  extended    Belgian  rule  up  the 

'  See  page  451. 

^  A  great  deal  of  work  in  this  direction  had  previously  been  done  by  Captain 
Baert  and  Mr.  J.  R.  Werner. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE  419 

Mubangi-Wele  to  Jabir,  thus  getting  in  touch  with  the  Sudan, 
and  up  the  Mbomu  to  Bangaso. 

In  1891  King  Leopold  devoted  special  attention  to  the 
south-easternmost  regions  of  the  Congo,  more  especially  the 
mountainous  country  of  Katanga.  Hither  came,  first  of  all,  to 
the  court  of  Chief  Msiri,  Paul  Le  Marinel  in  April ;  in  August 
Alexandre  Delcommune  was  exploring  the  Lualaba  and  Lufira  ; 
and  in  December  a  powerful  expedition  under  Captain  Stairs,^ 
Captain  Bodson  (a  Belgian),  Dr.  Moloney,  and  the  Marquis 
de  Bonchamps  reached  Bunkeia,  the  native  capital  of  Msiri  s 
dominion  in  the  heart  of  Katanga. 

The  eastern  part  of  Katanga  had  been  visited  in  1890  by 
Alfred  Sharpe,^  a  Vice- Consul  in  British  Central  Africa.  Mr. 
Sharpe  had  offered  to  include  Msiri's  territory  within  the  British 
Sphere  of  Influence,  but  Msiri  had  civilly  but  firmly  declined. 

He  was  equally  unwilling  to  accept  the  Congo  flag  when 
Stairs  pressed  a  treaty  on  him.  It  was  determined,  however,  to 
"  brusquer  I'affaire,"  especially  as  Msiri  had  become  exceedingly 
unpopular  with  the  Basanga  people,  whom  he  enslaved, 
mutilated,  and  ill-treated.  Captain  Bodson  undertook  to  "bell 
the  cat,"  with  the  results  that  are  so  graphically  described  by 
Mr.  Torday  in  the  following  lines  : — 

THE  STORY  OF  MSIDI 

Msiri,  or  to  be  more  accurate  Msidi,^  was  born  in  Garenganze  in  the 
district  of  Unyamwezi.  He  was  the  son  of  Kalasa,  a  great  merchant 
of  the  Wanyamwezi,  who  used  to  go  distant  journeys  to  trade  in  ivory 
and  slaves.  The  expeditions  of  Kalasa  were  often  directed  towards  the 
country  of  the  Basanga.  When  Msidi  was  able  to  follow  his  father, 
the  latter  took  him  with  him  and  taught  him  the  usages  and  customs  of 
African  trading. 

On  the  death  of  his  father  (about  1866)  Msidi  carried  on  his  business 
and  like  his  father  proceeded  to  pay  frequent  visits  to  the  Basanga. 
One  day  when  he  was  travelling  among  the  latter  people  he  was 
detained  in  the  country  by  Sanga,  chief  of  their  tribe,  who  dwelt  at 
Mulumbu  (on  the  right  bank  of  the  Dikuluwe).  Sanga  offered  him 
advantages  of  every  kind  in  order  to  keep  him  among  them,  and 
Msidi  soon  acquired  a  great  influence  over  the  Basanga,  who  had  the 
greater  respect  for  him  in  that  he  possessed  four  flint-lock  guns,  a  weapon 
at  that  time  unknown  in  the  country. 

He  knew  how  to  take  advantage  of  his  exceptional  position  and 
soon  got  himself  designated  as  Sanga's  successor.  With  the  object  of 
strengthening  his  position  and  making  the  success  of  his  claims  assured 
when  the  time  should  be  ripe,  he  sent  for  his  brothers  Dikuku  and 

'  A  Nova  Scotian,  the  lieutenant  of  Stanley  and  the  first  climber  of  Ruwenzori. 
^  Now  Sir  Alfred  Sharpe. 

■*  The  name  is  often  pronounced  among  the  Basanga  as  Mshidi. 


420   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Chikako,  his  kinsmen  Kifuntwe,  Kifundu,  Nepamba,  Inakulangalu, 
Kasonga-Mona,  and  Lumungoi,  as  well  as  a  great  number  of  Wanyam- 
wezi  slaves,  who  were  all  devoted  to  his  interest. 

Poinding  his  end  approaching,  Sanga  transferred  to  the  hands  of 
Msidi  the  sceptre  and  the  sword  of  execution,  the  symbols  of  authority. 
He  advised  him  to  follow  his  example,  to  be  always  a  good  ruler  over 
his  people  and  treat  them  with  humanity.  Immediately  after  the  death 
of  his  protector  Msidi  installed  himself  at  ]\Iulumbu,  where  he  sur- 
rounded himself  with  all  the  adventurers  whom  he  had  introduced  into 
the  country. 

At  the  time  when  he  was  appointed  chief  of  INIulumbu  the  country 
was  inhabited  on  the  west  by  the  Balunda  and  the  Baluba  [who  dwelt 
on  the  left  bank  of  the  Lualaba] ;  on  the  south  by  the  Balamba  [who 
occupied  the  countr}'  which  lay  along  the  right  bank  of  the  Lualaba 
from  the  source  of  this  river  as  far  as  the  Luapula],  and  the  Balala  of 
the  Zambezi  watershed.  On  the  south-east  between  the  Luapula  and 
the  Bangvveulu,  lived  the  Bahusi. 

On  the  east  dwelt  the  Balomotwa,  a  race  of  mountaineers  who  occu- 
pied the  chain  of  the  Kwandelungu  (Kunde-irungo)  Mountains ;  the 
Bakundu  or  Bachila  inhabited  the  banks  of  Lake  Mweru  ;  the  Bikanda 
peopled  the  left  bank  of  the  upper  Luapula ;  finally  the  Balunda  were 
installed  on  the  right  bank  of  the  same  part  of  this  river.  The  great 
chief  of  this  last  tribe,  Kazembe,  was  at  this  period  the  one  who  enjoyed 
the  greatest  power  throughout  the  country.  He  proclaimed  his  laws  in 
the  land.  Without  being  recognized  as  suzerain  he  was  listened  to  by 
the  Basanga,  the  Balunda,  and  the  Bakundu,  but  only  received  gifts 
from  them  without  ever  exacting  tribute. 

All  the  small  chiefs  of  each  of  these  families  used  to  send  by  way  of 
tribute  the  whole  of  their  ivory  to  the  chief  of  the  tribe. 

After  being  firmly  established  at  Mulumbu,  Msidi  thought  of  re- 
placing by  his  relatives  the  Basanga  chiefs  who  occupied  with  all  their 
subjects  the  country  of  the  rich  copper  mines.  To  attain  his  object  he 
went  step  by  step.  Various  expeditions  were  organized,  and  Msidi, 
always  victorious,  placed  at  the  head  of  all  the  villages  (and  as 
guardians  of  all  the  mines  of  the  country  of  the  Basanga)  people  who 
were  devoted  to  his  interest.  Kazembe  wanted  to  interfere,  but  Msidi 
organizing  a  new  expedition  turned  eastwards.  He  first  routed  the 
Balomotwa,  crushed  the  Bakundu  (or  Bachila),  and  then  crossing  the 
Luapula  penetrated  to  the  capital  of  Kazembe  whom  he  seized.  He 
put  him  to  death,  and  established  in  his  place  his  victim's  son,  who  bore 
the  same  name  as  his  father  and  recognized  Msidi  as  overlord.^ 

This  expedition  finally  established  his  power  over  the  Balunda  of 
the  east  and  the  Bachila.  The  Balomotwa  alone,  a  wild  and  untame- 
able  race,  refused  to  submit.  They  took  refuge  in  the  caves  of  the 
mountains  to  which  none  could  approach,  defended  as  they  were  by 
huge  rocks,  which  the  cave  dwellers  hurled  upon  all  who  tried  to  get 
near  them. 

'  This  was  the  Kazembe  who  came  under  British  protection  in  1S92.  The 
"  Kazembe"  (a  word  supposed  to  mean  \"iceroy)  was  originally  in  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries  a  satrap  and  a  scion  of  the  Lunda  Empire  of  the  Mwata 
Vanvo.  (H.  H.  J.) 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE  421 

All  these  expeditions  had  not  caused  Msidi  to  neglect,  good 
merchant  as  he  was,  commercial  affairs.  While  he  was  occupied  in 
subduing  the  Basanga,  he  had  sent  his  own  brother  Chikako  to  Bihe 
(Angola)  with  ivory,  and  had  bidden  him  attract  to  the  country  the 
merchants  of  Benguela. 

Chikako  was  completely  successful  in  his  mission,  and  soon  powder, 
trade  goods,  guns  and  beads  poured  into  the  country.  From  that  time, 
thanks  to  firearms,  elephant  hunting  was  rendered  easier,  and  the 
great  Arab  merchants  of  Lake  Nyasa  hastened  to  trade  in  a  country 
where  ivory  was  found  in  such  abundance. 

After  the  submission  of  the  natives  who  dwelt  on  the  banks  of  the 
Luapula,  Msidi  became  master  of  a  territory  which  had  for  boundaries 
on  the  west  the  Lualaba  ;  on  the  north  almost  the  ninth  degree  of 
latitude  ;  in  the  east  the  Luapula  ;  and  on  the  south  the  Zambezi- 
Congo  water-parting.  This  vast  country  covered  an  extent  of  nearly 
63,000  square  miles.  The  commercial  transactions  of  such  a  powerful 
negro  potentate  had  made  his  power  known  far  and  wide.  Livingstone 
and  Cameron  revealed  it  to  Europe.  In  1878  Joseph  Thomson  tried 
to  make  his  way  to  Bunkeia,  which  Msidi  had  made  his  residence,  but 
found  himself  forced  to  retrace  his  steps  when  he  reached  the  confluence 
of  the  Luapula  and  the  Lualaba.  The  German  explorer  Reichard  was 
the  first  European  to  reach  Msidi's  capital  in  1883. 

At  this  date  Msidi  had  organized  a  vast  expedition  which  was 
intended  to  subdue  the  tribes  of  the  north  and  the  Baluba,  beginning 
with  those  on  the  banks  of  Lake  Kikondia.  This  campaign,  which 
lasted  several  months,  enabled  the  great  chief  to  set  up  his  relatives 
Kifuntwe,  Kifundu,  Nepamba,  Inakulangalu,  Kasonga-Mona,  and 
Lumungoi  as  rulers  of  different  districts,  lying  between  the  mouth  of 
the  Lufira  and  the  lower  Luapula.  Kikondia  and  other  Baluba  chiefs 
of  the  south,  dwelling  by  the  Lualaba,  recognized  him  as  overlord. 
The  Balunda,  fearing  to  see  their  country  invaded,  submitted,  and  the 
Bahusi  and  Balamba  chiefs  ended  by  repairing  to  Bunkeia  to  recognize 
the  tyrant's  authority. 

In  1885,  Capello  and  Ivens  crossed  the  south  of  Msidi's  possessions. 
About  the  same  time  F.  S.  Arnot  reached  Bunkeia,  where  he  was  so 
well  received  that  he  decided  to  establish  a  mission  there. 

The  power  of  Msidi  had  reached  its  zenith  in  1890.  His  ambition 
no  longer  knew  any  bounds  ;  all  the  world  was  bowing  down  before 
him.  The  Scottish  missionaries  themselves  who  were  established  at 
Bunkeia  were  treated  with  disdainful  toleration  ;  one  of  them  (Craw- 
ford) acted  as  his  secretary,  others  sent  him  valuable  presents  in  the 
name  of  the  inhabitants  of  Glasgow  :  they  were  at  his  mercy. ^ 

Msidi  had  by  this  time  grown  too  old  to  conduct  any  longer 
his  expeditions  in  person  against  certain  of  his  rebellious  subjects. 
So  he  had  relinquished  the  command  of  them  to  his  son  Mukanda- 
bantu. 

No  longer  being  able  to  enjoy  the  sight  of  the  slaughter  of  the 
vanquished,  in  which  his  soldiers  indulged  on  the  very  spot  where  they 
made  them  prisoners,  and  eager  for  blood,  he  set  about  making  martyrs 

'  This  is  Mr.  Torday's  version ;  not  mine.  One  or  more  of  these  missionaries  may 
have  been  Scots,  but  the  mission  was  supported  by  the  Plymouth  Brethren.  (H.  H.  J.) 


422   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


of  those  who  surrounded  him.  Every  day  he  increased  the  number  of 
his  victims  and  invented  new  cruelties. 

Sometimes  it  was  shutting  up  women  aHve  in  houses  with  dogs  and 
leaving  them  without  food.  At  the  end  of  some  days  the  latter,  mad 
with  hunger,  would  eat  the  women  who  had  no  longer  strength  to 
protect  themselves.  Sometimes  it  was  binding  wretched  creatures  to 
trees,  and  when  they  cried  too  much  from  hunger,  cutting  off  their  ears 
or  noses  to  provide  them  with  a  meal ! 

Daily  for  the  most  trifling  reasons,  victims  were  laid  on  their  backs, 
then  their  breasts  were  opened  by  driving  in  a  wedge  in  order  to  tear 
out  the  heart.  Still  other  victims  were  buried  alive  up  to  the  neck  at 
some  distance  from  the  villages,  and  then  became  the  prey  of  wild  beasts. 

The  Bahusi  and  Balamba  were  the  first  to  revolt  from  Msidi,  then 
followed  the  Baluba,  and  finally,  most  fatal  of  all,  even  the  people  who 
dwelt  immediately  around  the  chief  began  to  desert,  fearing  they  would 
become  victims  of  the  cruelties  which  they  witnessed  daily.  Tribute 
did  not  arrive  in  such  abundance  ;  and  then  no  longer  having  anything 
to  barter  with  the  traders  of  Bihe,  who  continued  to  come  to  him,  the 
cruel  despot  robbed  of  their  goods  those  merchants  to  whom  he  no 
longer  had  ivory  to  give.  In  revenge  they  instigated  the  Basanga  to 
cease  paying  tribute  to  Msidi,  and  to  sell  direct  to  them  in  return 
for  their  powder  and  guns  the  proceeds  of  their  hunting.  These 
natives  followed  the  advice  of  the  Bihenos  ;  they  soon  found  them- 
selves in  possession  of  a  great  many  guns  and  revolted. 

Three  chiefs,  Mutwila,  established  near  the  Lufira,  and  Kalakumbia 
and  Mulumu-manyama,  near  the  Dikuluwe,  put  themselves  at  the  head  of 
the  movement  and  penetrated  three  times  into  Bunkeia  during  the  night. 
Villages  were  burnt  and  many  men  killed.  Msidi,  who  no  longer  pos- 
sessed much  powder,  made  but  a  poor  defence  of  his  own.  Moreover, 
desertions  increased  in  considerable  proportions.  Famine  came  further  to 
accelerate  the  confusion,  which  became  general  ;  it  was  brought  about 
by  the  improvidence  of  the  inhabitants  and  the  ravages  of  the  Basanga 
at  each  of  their  attacks. 

Msidi,  finding  himself  abandoned,  was  himself  thinking  of  leaving 
Bunkeia  when  there  arrived  the  expedition  of  Captain  Stairs. 

The  savage  negro  ruler  at  first  received  the  commander  of  the  Katanga 
expedition  with  joy  ;  he  imagined  that  the  energetic  officer  was  going 
to  help  him  to  subdue  his  revolted  subjects.  But  he  strangely  deceived 
himself,  and  when  he  discovered  his  mistake  he  began  to  plot  against 
the  life  of  the  Europeans.  The  20th  December  1891  Captain  Bodson, 
sent  by  his  commanding  officer  to  Msidi  in  order  to  induce  him  to  keep 
to  his  promise,  boldly  entered  with  no  more  than  ten  men  the  very 
house  of  this  monster. 

He  argued  for  ten  minutes  with  the  chief,  when  suddenly  the  latter 
raised  himself,  brandishing  a  sabre  of  which  Stairs  had  made  him  a 
present  the  day  before ;  it  was  a  signal,  arranged  beforehand,  and 
immediately  the  followers  of  Msidi  covered  the  Belgian  and  his  com- 
panions with  their  guns.  Seeing  his  danger,  Bodson  drew  his  revolver 
and  blew  out  the  brains  of  his  antagonist.  One  of  the  attendants  of 
the  negro  king  thereupon  fired  at  the  Belgian  captain,  who  fell  mortally 
wounded. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE  423 

Such  was  the  end  of  "the  greatest  tyrant  of  Africa,"  as  Stairs 
called  him.  The  same  evening  Bodson  died.  "  His  death  was  one  of 
superb  heroism,"  says  the  missionary  Arnot,  "and  at  the  moment  when 
he  was  about  to  draw  his  last  breath,  he  uttered  the  cry,  Vwe  le  Roi ! 
Those  were  his  last  words  ;  some  moments  afterwards  he  had  ceased 
to  be." 

Msidi's  kingdom  has  long  since  been  dissolved  ;  it  was  parcelled 
out  by  Stairs  and  those  who  followed  him — Captains  Bia  and  Francqui, 
P.  Le  Marine],  and  A.  Delcommune — and  divided  among  different  chiefs 
who  submitted  to  the  authority  of  the  Congo  State. 

After  the  annexation  of  Katanga,  the  Congo  Independent 
State  soon  extended  its  visible  authority  to  the  south-eastern 
extremities  of  the  Cono-o  basin, ^  all  danger  of  British  ao-oression 
being  obviated  by  effective  occupation.  In  1890  arrangements 
were  made  (to  be  carried  out  in  1892-3  by  Grenfell)  for 
defining-  the  south-western  frontiers  marching  with  Portuoal. 
Political  possession  of  the  west  coast  of  Tanganyika  was  taken 
by  Captain  Jacques  in  December  1891,  when  he  founded  the 
fortified  port  of  Albertville.  The  Congo  State  was  now  free 
to  solve  the  Arab  question. 

'  At  first  the  Congo  authorities  attempted  to  extend  their  boundaries  across  the 
upper  Luapula  ;  all  these  disputes  were  solved  by  the  Anglo-Congolese  Treaty  of 
1S94. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE 


II.     THE    ARAB  WAR 

AS  related  in  chapter  x.,  the  situation  of  the  Congo  Free 
/  \  State  in  regard  to  Arab  rivalry  had  reached  its  nadir 
1.  V  about  1889.  At  that  time  the  Arabs  were  triumphant 
on  Lake  Nyasa.  On  Tanganyika  they  had  swept  away  both 
the  beginning  of  German  influence  and  what  remained  of 
Captain  Storms'  actions/  They  had  profited  enormously  by 
the  period  during  which  Tipu-Tipu  had  been  the  Congo  State 
Governor  of  the  Stanley  Falls  region,  having  turned  his 
subsidies  into  the  purchase  of  arms  and  ammunition.  They 
had  also  received  much  plunder  from  the  revolt  against  the 
Germans  in  East  Africa.  They  had  built  magnificent  towns, 
and  laid  out  hundreds  of  miles  of  plantations  along  the 
Lomami  and  the  Lualaba-Congo.  At  last,  in  1892,  they 
definitely  cast  off  any  show  of  respect  for  either  the  Congo 
Free  State  or  Europeans  in  general.  The  unoffending  Emin 
Pasha  had  been  lured  to  his  death  at  Kinena^  and  killed  by  the 

'  Captain  Storms  was  a  Belgian  who  came  out  to  East  Africa  in  1879  on  behalf 
of  the  Belgian  section  of  the  International  Association.  He  made  his  way  to  Lake 
Tanganyika,  where  he  was  also  joined  by  the  pioneers  of  the  White  Fathers  (the 
Catholic  mission  of  Algeria).  Storms  set  himself  to  work  to  defend  the  Tanganyika 
natives  against  the  Arab  slave-raids  under  Tipu-Tipu  and  others,  raids  which  at  that 
time  had  reached  their  maximum  :  the  Arabs  in  fact  were  de\  astating  the  shores  of 
Lake  Tanganyika  to  recruit  sla\  es  for  their  armies  and  labour  force.  Storms  became 
quite  a  hero  after  beating  off  the  Arab  forces  with  merely  native  material  hastily 
drilled  as  soldiers.  The  London  Missionary  Society's  agents  by  this  time  were 
established  with  a  steamer  on  Tanganyika  and  worked  cordially  with  Storms,  who  at 
last  became  recognized  as  the  big  white  chief  of  the  southern  half  of  this  lake.  So 
much  so,  that  when  it  was  intimated  to  him  about  1885  that  the  Congo  Free  State 
had  come  into  existence,  and  the  eastern  half  of  Tanganyika  had  been  recognized  as 
German,  he  revolted  against  the  orders  transmitted  by  the  King  of  the  Belgians  and 
declared  himself  (or  was  said  to  have  done  so)  "  Emperor  of  Tanganyika."  This 
may  have  been  a  newspaper  e.xaggeration  of  his  resolve  to  maintain  himself  on  this 
lake  independently  of  any  European  Power  and  as  a  sworn  foe  of  the  Arabs.  After  a 
time,  failure  of  supplies  and  want  of  means  compelled  him  to  bow  to  the  inevitable, 
and  he  eventually  returned  to  Belgium.  This  episode  deserves  mention,  because  it 
did  much  to  arrest  the  Arab  movement  in  South-Central  Africa.  The  writer  of  these 
lines  reached  Tanganyika  in  1889,  to  find  the  memory  of  Captain  Storms  still  vivid 
amongst  the  peoples  of  the  lake,  who  had  the  highest  regard  for  him.  (H.  H.  J.) 

October  23  1892.  Kinena  is  near  the  Lilu  River,  about  eighty  miles  east  of 
Ponthierville. 

424 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE  425 


orders  of  Mohara,  who  was  practically  the  supreme  chief  of  the 
Congo  Arabs.  The  Belgian  expedition  under  Hodister,  which 
had  been  establishing  itself  for  trading  purposes  on  the  upper 
Lomami,  had  been  attacked  and  its  leaders  massacred,  includ- 
ing Hodister  himself^  Finally,  the  Belgian  Resident  at 
Kasongo  and  his  assistant  (Lieutenants  Lippens  and  Debruyne) 
had  been  made  prisoners, 

Tipu-Tipu,  who  was  the  real  leader  of  this  movement  from 
1875  onwards,  and  whose  history  it  is  not  necessary  to  relate 
here,^  had  observed  at  all  times  a  certain  loyalty  towards 
Stanley  and  perhaps  towards  the  English  in  general,  but  he  had 


226.  SEFU,  SON  OF  TIPU-TIPU,  AND  HIS  REPRP:SENTAT1  VE  IN  CONGOLAND,  WITH 
THE  TWO  BELGIAN  OFFICERS  WHO  WERE  SUBSEQUENTLY  KILLED 
Photo  taken  by  Rev.  William  Forfeitt  at  Stanley  Falls  in  1891. 


the  greatest  contempt  for  the  Belgians.  The  Belgian  explorers 
of  East  Africa  prior  to  the  foundation  of  the  Congo  Free  State 
had  not,  with  the  exception  of  Storms  and  Becker,  always 
been  very  wise,  resourceful,  or  even  courageous.  They 
appeared  to  the  Arabs  feckless  people  in  comparison  with  such 
Englishmen  as  Speke,  Burton,  Grant,  Stanley,  Thomson,  and 
they  were  obviously  not  so  clever  as  the  German  scientific 
travellers  of  those  days.  It  therefore  seemed  to  the  Arabs  in 
1892  as  though  they  had  better  make  peace  with  the  British 
on  Lake  Nyasa,  the  Germans  on  eastern  Tanganyika,  and 
devote  all  their  energies  to  creatinor  a  grreat  Muhammadan  state 

'  May  15  1892. 

^  See  Tippoo  Tib,  by  Dr.  Erode  :  Edwin  Arnold,  1906. 


426   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


in  South-Central  Africa  which  should  send  its  commerce  to 
the  east  coast,  over  British  and  German  trade  routes. 

The  efforts  of  the  home  oro-anization  in  Brussels  to  meet 
this  serious  crisis  do  not  appear  to  have  evidenced  either  great 
foresight,  lavish  expenditure,  or  preparation  for  a  struggle 
of  colossal  difficulties  and  importance.  The  situation  was 
saved  by  a  handful  of  Belgians  of  quite  exceptional  bravery, 
vigour,  and  grim  determination,  by  one  or  two  Englishmen  in 
the  Belgian  service,  and  by  several  Liberians !  The  story  of 
the  wonderful  year's  war  against  the  Arabs  in  1892-3,  as  related 
by  Captain  Sydney  Hinde,^  and  illustrated  by  occasional  re- 
marks in  the  diary  of  Grenfell,  is  certainly  one  of  the  most 
extraordinary  chapters  in  African  history. 

The  preparations  for  this  struggle,  conscious  or  unconscious, 
had  been  made  by  gradually  establishing  a  strong  depot  at 
Lusambo,  by  exploring  with  the  En  Avant,  and  the  occasional 
friendly  co-operation  of  Grenfell  in  the  Peace,  that  wonderful 
system  of  waterways — the  Kasai  and  its  tributaries — which 
really  enabled  the  Belgian  authorities  working  from  Stanley 
Pool  to  take  the  Arabs  in  flank.  If  it  had  not  been  possible 
to  get  by  a  direct  steamer  voyage  from  Stanley  Pool  to  within 
a  few  days'  walk  of  the  Lomami  River,  the  whole  course  of 
recent  Congo  history  might  have  been  different.  The  heroes 
on  the  Belgian  side  in  this  extraordinary  conflict  were  firstly 
Commandant  Dhanis,  who  for  his  services  was  created  a  baron 
by  King  Leopold,  Captain  de  Wouters,^  Commandant  Ponthier, 
and  Captain  Doorm,  Captain  Sydney  L.  Hinde  (a  medical 
officer  to  the  expedition,  originally  recommended  for  this 
service  by  Dr.  Parke,  who  accompanied  Stanley),  and  a 
Liberian  neo^ro  seroreant  from  Monrovia  named  Albert  Frees. 
Perhaps  next  in  importance,  however,  to  Dhanis  was  a  negro 
soldier  of  fortune  who  had  risen  to  the  position  of  a  powerful 
chief — Gonofo  Lutete.  This  man  came  from  that  remarkable 
Manyema  people,  a  race  which  has  played  such  a  great  part, 
for  good  and  evil,  in  the  development  of  the  eastern  Congo. 
Captain  Hinde  describes  him  in  the  following  words  : — 

"  He  was  a  well-built,  intelligent-looking  man  of  about  five 
feet  nine  inches  in  height,  with  a  brown  skin,  large  brown  eyes 
with  very  long  lashes,  a  small  mouth  with  thin  lips,  and  a 
straight,  comparatively  narrow  nose.  ...  He  had  a  way  of 

^  The  Fall  of  the  Congo  Arabs,  by  Captain  S.  L.  Hinde  :  Methuen,  1897. 

^  The  Chevalier  d'Ophnter  de  Wouters  was  six  feet  five  inches  in  height,  always 
dressed  in  white,  peerless  in  bravery,  and  known  to  the  admiring  negroes  as  "  The 
White  Heron." 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE  427 


never  letting'  anyone  forget  he  was  a  chief,  and  his  manners 
were  extremely  dignified." 

In  July  1892  the  leading  details  of  the  rather  ramshackle 
expedition  which  was  to  stay  the  Arab  advance  left  Lusambo 
to  march  towards  the  Lomami.  Gongo  Lutete  in  the  previous 
year  had  commenced  the  Arab  attack  on  the  Congo  Free  State 
by  fighting  its  officers  on  his  own  account,  the  Arabs  disclaim- 
ing responsibility.  He  had  been,  however,  severely  beaten  in 
this  engagement,  and  had  conceived  a  sudden  respect  and  liking 
for  the  European  as  compared  to  the  Arab  ;  moreover,  the 
Arabs  had  treated  him  after  his  reverses  with  disdain.  Ac- 
cordingly, after  an  interview  with  Commandant  Dhanis  he 
decided  to  join  the  Belgian  expedition  with  a  nucleus  of  six 
hundred  irregulars.  The  real  triumphs  of  this  extraordinary 
campaign,  according  to  Hinde,  rest  in  the  main  with  Dhanis, 
de  Wouters,  Doorm,  Ponthier,  Gongo  Lutete,  and  the 
Liberian,  Albert  Frees,  for  the  details  of  whose  extraordinary 
exploits,  courage,  good  luck,  the  reader  should  consult  Captain 
Hinde's  book. 

The  regular  soldiers  employed  in  this  expedition  were 
Hausas  from  the  interior  of  Lagos,  recruited  by  the  permission 
of  the  British  Government.  There  were  irres^ulars  from  the 
Gold  Coast,  from  Liberia,  and  from  Sierra  Leone.  The 
officers,  with  the  exception  of  Captain  Hinde,  were  Belgians. 
A  volunteer,  however,  attached  himself  to  the  expedition  and 
rendered  good  service  in  the  person  of  Mr.  Mohun,  the  Con- 
sular official  of  the  United  States. 

The  expedition  was  exceedingly  poorly  furnished  with  arms, 
ammunition,  and  supplies,  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  remark- 
able captures  from  the  Arabs  it  would  have  perished  in  spite  of 
its  bravery.  But  one  incredible  success  led  to  another,  till  at  the 
end  of  a  year's  campaigning  all  the  Arab  leaders  were  dead  or 
sorely  wounded,  and  the  Arab  power  of  Tanganyika  and  the 
Upper  Congo  had  vanished,  perhaps  for  ever.^ 

There  are  still  Arabs  on  the  Congo,  and  the  Arabized 
population  is  proportionately  larger  than  ever.  The  Swahili 
language  of  Zanzibar  has  been  implanted  as  the  lingua  franca 
of  all  the  eastern  third  of  the  Congo  State.  But  it  is  an 
industrious  population,  that  for  the  time  being,  at  any  rate, 
sides  with  the  white  man,  and  accepts  the  white  man's  discipline. 

^  It  might  be  interesting  to  record  a  list  here  of  the  principal  Belgians  who 
distinguished  themselves  in  the  1892-4  campaigns  against  the  Arabs  between 
Tanganyika  and  the  Lomami  :  Dhanis,  de  Wouters,  Descamps,  Doorm,  Lothaire, 
Ponthier,  Gillian,  de  Heusch,  Cerckel,  Collignon,  Rom,  Scherlink,  Tobback,  Van  Lint, 
Hambursin,  Lange,  Michaux,  Collet,  and  Cassar. 


428   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


But  the  whole  episode  of  the  contest  between  Belgian  and 
Arab  for  the  possession  of  the  most  valuable  part  of  Central 
Africa  was  a  lurid  one,  marked  by  horrors  scarcely  recorded  of 
the  worst  days  of  the  Spaniard  in  Central  America,  or  the 


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227.  FACSIMILE  OF  A  PORTION  OF  THE  SKETCH  MAP  BY  BARON  DHANIS, 
PRESENTED  BY  HIM  TO  GRENFELL  IN  1890 


Englishman  or  Dutchman  in  Southern  Asia.  The  nucleus 
of  the  Congo  State  army  under  Commandant  Dhanis  was 
respectable  enough  :  the  Hausas,  the  Sierra  Leone  men,  the 
Liberians,  probably  kept  within  the  canons  of  decent  warfare. 
But  the  vast  horde  of  irregulars — Batetela,  Manyema,  Baluba, 
under  the  orders  of  Congo  Lutete,  were  frantic  cannibals,  just 
as  was  the  case  with  the  seven  or  eight  thousand  irregular 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE  429 

troops  attached  to  the  Arab  forces  who  came  from  somewhat 

similar  tribes.    The  loss  of  life  in  each  contest  was  terrific. 

Men  were  shot,  speared,  knifed,  drowned,  and  invariably  eaten. 

Prisoners  seem  to  have  been  issued  as  rations  by  the  native 

commanders  of  both  the  armies  ;  indeed,  Grenfell  (writing  from 

hearsay  of  this  warfare  from  the  west)  and  Hinde,  from  closer 

knowledge,  allude  to  instances  of  men  and  women  being  handed 

over  to  these  wild  soldiers  for  their  food  allowance  that  were 

cut  to  pieces  as  they  stood,  and  devoured  as  soon  as  their  flesh 

could  be  cooked.    Nothino-  but  a  few  bones  were  left  of  the 

killed  on  the  morning  after  every  fight.   The  crocodiles  swarmed 

in  all  the  big^  rivers  to  devour  fugritives  who  took  to  the  water 

as  their  last  chance.    As  to  the  Arabs,  when  in  the  earlier 

stages  of  this  struggle  they  caught  a  Belgian  living,  they  would 

flog  him  to  death  and  leave  his  mangled  remains  to  be  cooked 

.  .    .  ^ 

and  eaten  by  the  auxiliaries.  The  only  two  Belgians  who 
were  destroyed  with  anything  like  decency  by  the  Arabs  were 
Lieutenants  Lippens  and  Debruyne,  the  Resident  and  his 
secretary  at  Kasongo,  who  in  a  sense  were  held  as  hostages 
till  the  Arab  defeats  succeeded  one  after  the  other.  They  were 
then  put  to  death  with  knives,  and  even  cut  into  pieces,  but 
were  carefully  buried,  and  had  a  neat  ornament  erected  over 
their  common  grave. 

On  the  other  hand,  such  Arabs  as  fell  into  the  power  of 
Dhanis's  native  irregulars  were  killed  and  eaten,  though  it 
is  only  right  to  point  out  that  the  Belgians  succeeded  in  saving 
a  number  of  their  Arab  prisoners,  and  that  the  cases  of  court- 
martial  of  Arabs  accused  of  complicity  in  the  death  of  Europeans 
were  conducted  with  impartiality. 

The  stories  of  the  capture  of  Nyangwe  and  Kasongo  read 
like  episodes  in  an  impossible  Rider  Haggard  romance.  These 
brilliant  victories  were  followed  by  sordid  misfortunes — out- 
breaks of  smallpox  and  influenza.  The  splendidly  built  towns 
of  the  Arabs  were  destroyed,  so  that  in  the  case  of  Nyangwe, 
scarcely  a  vestige  has  remained. 

These  crowning  victories,  moreover,  were  followed  by  an 
incident  more  shocking  to  our  sense  of  honour  by  far  than  the 
subsequent  execution  of  the  Englishman  Stokes.^  Congo 
Lutete,  the  Manyema  hero,  who  had  turned  the  fortune  of  war 

'  Charles  Stokes  was  a  fine,  handsome-looking  man,  a  native  of  the  north  of 
Ireland,  who  came  out  about  1880  to  East  Africa  in  order  to  organize  the  caravans  of 
the  Church  Missionary  Society  passing  between  the  Zanzibar  coast  and  the  A'ictoria 
Nyanza.  He  obtained  a  great  influence  over  the  natives,  and  was  often  asked  to 
organize  trustworthy  caravans  for  other  travellers.  He  arranged,  for  example,  at  the 
outset  the  Kilimanjaro  Expedition  led  by  the  present  writer.    Some  years  later  he 


430   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


in  the  beginning  of  the  struggle,  and  had  won  victory  after 
victory  over  the  Arabs,  he,  in  fact,  who  alone  had  made  this 
extraordinary  conquest  possible  to  Dhanis,  in  some  way  came 
into  the  power  of  Lieutenant  Duchesne,  a  Belgian  officer  on 
the  Lomami  River,  Gongo  Lutete  trusted  himself  confidingly 
to  this  man's  control.  A  charge  of  conspiracy  was  suddenly 
trumped  up  against  him,  a  court-martial  was  summoned,  and 
Gongo  Lutete  sentenced  to  be  shot.  Though  stao;crered  at 
this  act  of  inconceivable  ingratitude  and  baseness,  he  resigned 
himself  to  death,  and  attempted  to  hang  himself  with  a  rope 
made  from  his  clothing.  He  was  cut  down,  revived,  haled  out 
of  prison,  and  shot  with  every  circumstance  of  ignominy.  The 
action,  as  recorded  by  Hinde,  remains  to  this  day  inconceivable. 

For  a  time  the  native  forces  were  too  much  stunned  to  carry 
out  any  plan  of  revenge,  but  the  murder  of  Lutete  fermented 
in  their  minds. 

Soon  after  this  another  incident  occurred  which,  for  the  first 
time,  caused  bad  blood  between  Belgium  and  Great  Britain 
regarding  the  Congo.  In  1895  Captain  Lothaire,  who  had 
taken  a  very  gallant  part  in  the  Arab  war,  was  clearing  up  the 
remains  of  that  war  in  the  upper  Lindi  country  (south  of  the 
Aruwimi-Ituri)  when  he  was  made  aware  that  a  Air.  Stokes  was 
in  the  neiohbourhood,  having"  travelled  thither  from  the  Victoria 
Nyanza.  He  was  informed  that  Stokes  was  buying  ivory  from 
the  Manyema  and  Arabs  in  the  region  bordering  on  Lake 
Albert  Edward,  and  that  he  was  supplying  them  in  exchange 
with  gunpowder  and  ammunition.  Lothaire  summoned  Stokes 
to  a  conference,  and  Stokes,  apparently  never  dreaming  of  the 
result,  came  to  Lothaire's  camp  at  Lindi  ^  with  a  few  followers 
only.  He  was  immediately  arrested,  tried,  sentenced,  and  a 
few  hours  afterwards  hung.  The  act  was  outrageous,  yet  it 
does  not  seem  to  my  mind  such  a  blot  on  the  Belgian  record 
as  the  murder  of  Gongo  Lutete,  their  great  negro  ally.  Stokes, 
I  fear,  was  keeping  the  Arab  struggle  alive  by  supplying  them 
with  munitions  of  war ;  but  under  the  circumstances  a  sen- 
tence of  imprisonment  at  Boma  and  deportation  to  Europe, 
when  the  charge  was  proved,  would  have  met  the  case  amply. 
There  was  something  bred  of  savagery  in  his  judicial  murder. 

Although  retribution  for  the  execution  of  Gongo  Lutete 
took  two  years  to  mature,  it  fell  heavily  on  the  Belgians.  By 

ceased  his  direct  connection  with  the  Mission  and  took  up  a  general  transport  and 
trading  business  on  his  own  account.  He  had  very  great  influence  in  Uganda,  and 
his  intervention  in  the  affairs  of  that  State  is  recorded  in  my  book  on  the  Uganda 
Protectorate. 

'  On  the  upper  Lindi  River. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE 


this  time  they  had  paid  off  most  of  their  Hausas  and  other 
foreign  negro  troops,  and  relied  chiefly  on  the  indigenous 
Bangala  of  the  Northern  Congo,  and  the  Batetela  and  Manyema 
from  the  east  and  south.  Amongst  the  Batetela,  who  were 
chiefly  stationed  on  the  Lulua  River,  the  remembrance  of  the 
death  of  Congo  Lutete  smouldered,  till  at  last  (Luluabourg,  July 
1895)  they  broke  out  into  open  mutiny,  killed  their  command- 
ing officer  (Capt.  Peltzer),  and  marched  north  and  east.  Baron 
Dhanis  composed  the  mutiny  by  military  action  and  negotia- 
tion. But  it  broke  out  again  at  the  beginning  of  1897,  as 
Dhanis  was  leading  a  large  force  of  men  to  occupy  the  Lado 
enclave.  At  Ndirfi,  in  the  Nile  basin,  the  Batetela  turned  on 
their  officers,  killing  Capt.  Leroi  and  several  others,  and  making 
off  southwards  with  large  stores  of  arms  and  ammunition. 
Dhanis  and  a  few  other  BelQ-ian  and  Norweg-ian  officers 
managed  with  great  difficulty  to  regain  Stanley  Falls,  where 
they  organized  a  new  army  to  pursue  the  mutineers. 

The  revolted  Batetela  soldiers  ranged  chiefly  through  the 
Manyema  country  east  of  the  Lualaba-Congo. 

The  followinor  note  on  the  Batetela  mutineers  and  on  the 
officers  of  the  Congo  forces  is  contributed  by  Mr.  Emil 
Torday  : — 

"  The  Batetela  are  a  fine  race  of  warriors,  who  form  the  best  soldiers 
to  be  found  in  the  Congo.  But  much  tact  is  necessary  to  lead  them, 
for  they  have  in  them  the  spirit  of  rebellion  which  is  not  found  among 
the  other  tribes.  With  a  firm  but  kind  officer  the  Batelela  will  do 
anything,  but  weakness  or  exaggerated  severity  drives  them  to  rebel- 
lion. The  officers  of  the  Congo  State  are  for  the  main  part  Belgians, 
Italians,  and  Scandinavians.  Of  these  the  palm  in  later  days  is  certainly 
due  to  the  Scandinavians.  [I  write  this  without  detriment  to  the  heroic 
Belgians  who  served  with  Dhanis  in  the  Arab  war  or  carried  the  Congo 
flag  to  the  Bahr-al-Ghazal.]  These  men  possess  as  a  rule  a  very  good 
education,  and  that  which  is  of  great  importance  for  the  white  man 
when  he  has  to  command  primitive  peoples,  they  are  very  correct  in 
their  dealings.  They  are  exceptionally  bold,  and  their  Northern  blood 
gives  them  that  coolness  which  cannot  be  found  amongst  the  others. 
Some  of  these  Scandinavian  officers  have  won  the  heart  of  their 
people  by  one  simple  act  of  daring  by  which  they  show  distinctly  that 
however  brave  the  negro  be  he  cannot  approach  the  white  man. 
Shortly  before  the  mutineers  took  Kabambare  the  State  troops  were 
surprised  by  them  one  evening.  They  retired  about  two  hundred  yards 
behind  their  camp  fires  whilst  the  mutineers  camped  at  about  two 
hundred  yards  from  the  other  side.  The  avant-garde  was  commanded 
by  a  Swedish  officer  who  is  now  aide-de-camp  of  the  King  of  Sweden. 
Whilst  waiting  for  events  to  develop  he  took  a  cigarette  from  his 
pocket  and  was  looking  for  a  match  that  he  could  not  find.  So  he 
walked  slowly  up  to  the  camp  fire  whilst  the  enemy  began  furious  firing 


432   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


against  him.  That  did  not  make  him  hasten.  He  took  up  a  burning 
brand,  lit  his  cigarette,  and  returned  slowly  to  his  soldiers  without  even 
once  turning  round  on  the  enemy,  from  whom  hundreds  of  bullets 
were  coming.  It  may  be  easily  imagined  how  the  soldiers  were 
impressed  by  this.  Some  short  time  after  this,  Kabambare  was 
attacked  by  the  rebels,  the  State  forces  were  repulsed  and  obliged  to 
abandon  the  place.  Amongst  those  who  defended  the  town  was  the 
Swedish  officer.  He  was  badly  wounded.  The  whole  forces  of  the 
State  retired,  but  his  own  fifty  soldiers  refused  to  follow  them,  saying 
they  would  stick  to  their  officer  to  the  last  man.  Four  hours  after  the 
troops  had  been  routed  those  fifty  men,  commanded  by  their  black 
sergeant,  kept  the  fort,  and  when,  at  last,  overwhelmed,  they  were 


228.  CONGO  STATE  STATION  OF  BASOKO,  NEAR  CONFLUENCE  OF  ARUWIMI 

(Where  Grenfell  is  buried.) 

obliged  to  retire,  two  of  the  strongest  men  carried  the  wounded  officer, 
the  troops  surrounding  them  and  fighting  their  way  through.  Only 
fifteen  out  of  the  fifty  arrived  at  the  main  camp,  but  they  had  brought 
their  officer  with  them." 

On  November  15  1898  Grenfell  writes  :  "  Kabambare 
taken  by  revolted  Batetela.  Four  Belgian  officers  killed,  two 
guns  taken,  and  all  the  stores  lost."  A  month  or  so  later  the 
place  was  retaken  by  Baron  Dhanis.  On  the  15th  of  January 
1899  Lieutenant  BelP  was  killed  at  Mondimbe,  near  Basoko, 
and  Van  der  Schinck  of  Boyulu  was  killed  on  an  expedition  to 

'  Grenfell  refers  to  Captain  Maurice  Bell,  a  British  Militia  officer  who  had 
entered  the  service  of  the  Congo  State. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE 


the  south.  On  the  17th  of  February  Captain  Descamps  was 
attacked  by  Arabs  and  mutineers  at  Bafwa-boli  (near  the 
Lindi  River),  but  he  succeeded  in  driving  them  off,  losing  one 
or  two  men  and  several  women  and  children  prisoners.  About 
this  period  Grenfell  writes  that  the  Belgians  are  endeavouring 
to  prevent  the  Arabs  committing  cruelties  on  the  people  (in  the 
districts  where  the  Arabs  have  submitted),  but  that  the  number 
of  headless  corpses  met  with  in  the  lands  behind  the  river  banks 
shows  that  the  Arabs  are  still  maltreating  the  natives. 
On  the  2nd  of  March  1899  he  writes  : — 

"  M.  of  Bafamba  tells  me  that  since  the  Goodwill  went  upstream 

a  prisoner  was  brought  in  to  L  e,  who  after  wanting  to  kill  the  said 

prisoner  was  persuaded  to  let  him  go.  As  he  was  going  away  he  took 
his  rifle  and  shot  him  through  the  back  !  He  afterwards  gave  the  body- 
to  the  Ngombe,  who  ate  it !  This  story  I  got  bit  by  bit,  and  with  every 
appearance  of  its  being  true.  The  soldiers  may  be  ruled  by  Bula 
Matadi,  but  they  rule  the  people.  M.  tells  me  that  the  Commandant 
has  been  informed  of  this  affair,  and  also  of  another  similar  one. 

"  He  tells  me  that  the  Commandant  shot  the  sergeant  who  was  with 
Bell  because  he  had  deserted  his  chief  The  sergeant,  however,  showed 
three  wounds  in  front  in  evidence  of  his  having  done  all  he  could.  He 
was  an  Abango-bango  man.  Bell's  head  was  brought  to  market  to 
prove  that  the  warrior  had  really  killed  a  white  man.  His  body  was 
eaten.  His  revolver  was  found  on  a  native  a  few  days  later  and  resulted 
in  the  said  native  being  shot.  Only  two  out  of  thirty  guns  taken  have 
been  returned,  but  women  and  children  are  held  as  ransom  for  the 
others,  and  it  is  expected  they  will  soon  come  in.  Bell  killed  eight 
natives  with  his  revolver  before  he  succumbed.  He  received  a  spear- 
thrust  through  the  thigh  which  prevented  his  keeping  up  a  standing 
fight.  It  was  not  till  he  was  speared  through  the  body  from  behind 
that  he  gave  up  the  struggle.  ...  I  hear  before  leaving  the  Falls  that 
Van  der  Schinck  was  surprised  in  camp  and  mortally  wounded.  He 
was  carried  back  to  Boyulu  by  some  faithfuls,  but  expired  before 
the  following  morning.  Soon  after  he  was  buried  the  station  was 
attacked  and  pillaged  and  his  body  was  taken  out  of  the  grave  and 
mutilated.  .  .  ." 

Driven  out  of  Manyema  by  Dhanis  and  Descamps,  the  rem- 
nant of  the  mutineers  marched  northwards  towards  Uganda, 
under  the  vague  idea  of  joining  hands  with  the  Uganda 
mutineers  in  a  general  rising  of  black  men  against  the  white 
tyrants.^  But  for  the  dogged  bravery  and  persistence  of 
Dhanis  they  would  have  effected  their  purpose,  but  they  were 
pertinaciously  followed  ;   until  at  last,  worn  out  with  hunger, 

'  In  case  we  should  moralize  too  much  over  the  revolted  Manyema  soldiers  and 
the  misery  they  inflicted  on  eastern  Congoland,  vi'e  might  remember  that  ttr, 
simultaneously,  were  combating  a  mutiny  of  our  Sudanese  troops  in  Uganda  and  a 
formidable  native  insurrection. 


I. — 2  F 


434  GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


disease,  and  fatigue,  their  miserable  remnants  passed  over  into 
German  East  Africa,  or  even  found  their  way  as  suppliants  to 
the  Uganda  Protectorate,  where  a  few  of  them  were  given 
the  means  of  settling  down  by  the  present  writer. 

It  is  movements  like  these  that  have  justified  a  warning 
from  time  to  time  that  the  good  or  ill  condition  of  the  Congfo 
•basin  is  a  matter  of  nearly  as  much  concern  to  the  limitrophe 
Powers  as  it  is  to  the  King- Sovereign  himself  It  is 
equally  the  case  with  regard  to  the  welfare  of  Portuguese  East 
or  West  Africa,  British  Central  Africa,  Uganda,  Nigeria. 
Racial  movements  in  Africa  spread  far  more  rapidly  than  we 
are  inclined  to  assume.  Even  the  best-governed  territory  of  this 
continent  contains  the  germs  of  dissatisfaction,  just  as  would  an 
England  or  a  Belgium  admirably  administered  by  Japanese  or 
by  American  negroes.  It  is  true  that  as  a  rule  the  negro  has 
very  little  sympathy  with  the  negro,  and  readily  enlists  under 
the  white  man's  banner  to  subdue  or  slay  other  negroes.  Yet, 
every  now  and  then,  once  in  fifty  years  perhaps,  a  not-easily- 
defined  wave  of  feeling  pulsates  through  this  or  that  African 
region,  some  electricity  which  for  a  moment  fuses  all  internecine 
dislikes  and  jealousies,  and  for  a  brief  while  ranges  all  the 
black  men  in  spirit  against  the  handful  of  white  men  who  are 
tyrannizing  over  them. 


229. 


RED-BRONZE  COLOURED  POT  OF  THE 
ABANGO-BANGO  PEOPLE 
(Basoko  country,  Aruwimi  confluence.) 


CHAPTER  XIX 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE 

III.     ADVANCE  TO  THE  NILE  AND  LATER  DEVELOPMENTS 

AFTER  the  extraordinary  successes  of  the  Belgian  arms 
/  \  over  the  Tanganyika  Arabs  in  1893  there  was  a  great 
^/  V  extension  of  Belgian  or  Congo  State  ambition  and 
geographical  discovery,  especially  towards  the  regions  in  the 
north  and  north-east. 

Already,  in  1887  and  1889,  Lieutenant  Vangele,  a  clever 
young  Belgian  who  was  one  of  Stanley's  earliest  recruits,  had 
continued  Grenfell's  exploration  of  the  Mubangi  River.  Ascend- 
ing this  stream  at  flood,  he  had  managed  to  pass  the  Zongo 
rapids,  and  had  traced  it  eastwards  as  far  as  its  junction  with 
the  Mbomu.  By  1891  Roget  had  co-operated  with  Vangele  in 
founding  a  post  at  Jabir  on  Schweinfurth's  Wele.^  In  the 
north-east,  beyond  the  Aruwimi  River,  enterprise  had  been 
checked  by  the  fierceness  of  the  Manyema  slave-traders,  allies 
and  confederates  of  the  Tanganyika  Arabs.  The  murder  of 
Emin  Pasha  had  daunted  exploration  in  this  direction. 

But  in  1892  Van  Kerckhoven  had  traced  the  Mubangi-Dua- 
Makua-Wele  to  its  very  source  within  two  or  three  days' journey 
of  Wadelai,  on  the  White  Nile.^  In  1892  Georges  Le  Marinel 
and  Hanolet,  and  in  1893,  Nilis  and  de  la  Kethulle  had  taken 
even  bolder  flights.    They  had  pushed  northwards  from  the 

^  Jabir,  as  already  related,  was  a  Nyamnyam  (A-banjia)  trader  and  petty  chief 
who  after  the  collapse  of  civilized  government  in  the  Sudan  had  settled  down  with  his 
guns  and  superior  knowledge  on  the  Wele  River  as  an  independent  potentate.  Jabir's 
dim  acquaintance  with  the  outer  world  beyond  the  heart  of  Africa  and  his  remem- 
brances of  white  men  like  Lupton  Bey  led  him  to  receive  the  Belgians  very  kindly  in 
the  days  when  they  were  but  feebly  supported  in  traversing  these  wild  regions. 
Nevertheless,  though  his  co-operation  assured  the  safety  of  their  pioneering  expedi- 
tions, they  cjuarrelled  with  him  in  1904-5,  and  in  1905  he  was  captured  by  the  Belgian 
force ;  and  executed. 

Lupton  Bey,  it  must  be  remembered,  before  his  capture  by  the  Mahdists  in  1885, 
had  been  a  wonderful  explorer.  He  was  a  remarkably  intelligent  young  Englishman 
engaged  for  the  service  of  the  Egyptian  Government  in  the  Bahr-al-Ghazal.  Highly 
popular  with  the  natives,  he  travelled  far  and  wide  to  the  west  and  south  of  the 
Egyptian  dominions,  and  his  fame  going  before  him  made  it  easy  for  other  Europeans 
to  follow  in  his  footsteps.    He  died  [the  Mahdi's  prisoner]  in  1892. 

^  Van  Kerckhoven  was  killed  by  a  gun  accident  on  August  10  1892. 

435 


436   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Mbomu  affluent  of  the  Mubangi  till  they  had  explored  the 
basin  of  the  Shinko  and  had  reached  the  north-westernmost 
limits  of  the  Bahr-al-Ghazal  region  and  even  the  vicinity  of 
Darfur  and  the  Bahr-al-Arab  watercourse.  Schagestrom,  Milz, 
Daenen,  Becker,  Chaltin,  Lothaire,  Paul  Le  Marinel,  and 
Bricusse  explored  the  mysterious  lands  on  the  confines  of  the 
Bantu,  between  the  Wele  on  the  north  and  the  Conoro  and 
Aruwimi  on  the  south.  Ponthier  had  elucidated  the  geography 
of  the  Bomokandi,  the  first  orreat  feeder  of  the  Wele  River/  and 
Hecq  had  traced  the  Mbomu  to  its  source     Milz  in  September 

1892  had  even  reached  the  Nile  near  Bedden,  and  in  June  1893 
Captain  Delanghe  had  occupied  Muggi,  Lahore,  and  Dufile 
on  the  left  bank  of  the  mountain  Nile.  So  successful  and 
relatively  bloodless  were  these  expeditions  that  the  Sovereign 
of  the  Congo  Independent  State  no  doubt  in  his  heart  of  hearts 
was  a  little  inclined  to  lauoh  at  the  timiditv  of  the  English. 

For,  between  1885  and  1898,  the  British  Government  and 
its  representatives  in  Egypt  felt  a  very  real  dread  of  adventure 
in  the  Sudan,  and  no  doubt  attributed  to  the  forces  of  the 
Khalifa  a  far  greater  degree  of  power  than  they  possessed  over 
the  tribes  in  the  region  of  the  Bahr-al-Ghazal  and  alonor  the 
White  Nile  above  Fashoda.  King  Leopold  knew  of  course  that 
the  British  shrank  not  only  from  the  serious  monetary  cost 
of  reconquering  the  Sudan,  but  from  provoking  a  war  with 
France  by  displaying  their  ambition  to  revive  the  lost  Egyptian 
empire  over  these  regions.  Just  as  he  had  stepped  in  amongst 
the  jealous  Powers  in  1884  with  regard  to  the  possession  of  the 
western  Congo,  so  it  seemed  to  him  that  the  situation  presented 
by  Central  African  affairs  in  1894  was  the  opportunity  for 
extending  his  dominion  north-eastwards  from  the  Congo  to  the 
Nile  ;  perhaps  even  northwards  to  Lake  Chad.    For  by  April 

1893  expedition  under  Hanolet,  Van  Calster,  and  Stroobant 
had  explored  the  Bali  and  Koto  affluents  of  the  Mubangi  and 
penetrated  across  the  water-parting  to  Belle  within  the  basin 
of  the  Shari. 

So  far  the  Belgian  forces  had  attempted  no  tussle  of 
strength  with  any  strong  Dervish  post  in  the  Nile  valley.-  But 
in  1894  the  forces  of  the  Khalifa  reoccupied  much  of  the  mountain 

1  He  fought  a  successful  battle  with  Manyema  Arabs  on  the  Bomokandi  and 
checked  their  movement  westwards  towards  the  Mubangi,  27  October  1891. 

-  This  bubble  was  to  be  pricked  by  the  daring  of  Marchand  and  his  com- 
panions— the  French  expedition  which  in  1S95-7  traversed  Africa  from  the  Gaboon 
to  Lado,  beat  the  Dervishes  in  several  encounters,  and  planted  the  French  tlag  at 
Fashoda.  one  of  the  most  remarkable  feats  of  daring  and  endurance  to  be  found  in 
the  history  of  Africa. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE  437 

Nile  and  of  the  Bahr-al-Ghazal.  They  had  furious  encounters 
with  the  Conoo  forces  under  Delanohe,  Gerard,  and  Donckier, 
and  later  on  under  Francqui,  the  Katanga  explorer.  The 
Dervishes  attempted  to  invade  the  Congo  basin,  but  were 
decisively  routed  and  made  to  retire  to  the  main  Nile.  This 
intervention  of  the  Belgians  saved  Uganda  from  a  Mahdist 
invasion.  Already,  in  1886,  when  the  relief  of  Emin  Pasha 
was  being  discussed,  King  Leopold  had  cast  his  glances  at 
Emin's  little  State  of  Equatoria,  and  in  1890  he  was  supposed 
to  have  obtained  from  Sir  William  Mackinnon,  then  Chairman 
of  the  Imperial  British  East  Africa  Company,  a  promise  or 
understanding  that  the  Company's  forces  would  leave  open  to 
the  King  of  the  Belgians  the  eventual  occupation  of  what  is 
now  known  as  the  Lado  Enclave. 

In  1894  therefore  the  well-known  but  unfortunate  boundary 
treaty  was  concluded  between  Great  Britain  and  the  Congo 
State.  It  admitted  Belgium  to  a  leasehold  over  the  Bahr- 
al-Ghazal  and  the  Lado  Enclave,  whilst  Great  Britain  ob- 
tained in  exchange  a  recognition  of  her  rights  over  the  rest 
of  the  Egyptian  Sudan,  a  small  piece  of  additional  territory  at 
the  south-west  corner  of  Tanganyika,  improvements  in  her 
frontier  round  about  Lake  Bangweulu,  and  a  narrow  strip 
of  land  to  connect  the  north  end  of  Tanganyika  with  Uganda. 

This  treaty  brought  to  a  crisis  the  counterclaims  of  France 
and  Germany.  Germany  compelled  Great  Britain  to  abandon 
the  only  asset  of  real  value  in  it — the  strip  of  land  between 
Ankole  and  Tanganyika,  which  would  have  made  the  Cape  to 
Cairo  route  complete.  France  insisted  on  stopping  the 
Belgians  at  the  Mbomu  River,  and  practically  thereby  ear- 
marked for  herself  the  whole  region  of  the  Bahr-al-Ghazal  up 
to  and  beyond  Fashoda. 

It  was,  however,  before  Lord  Kitchener's  defeat  of  the  Arabs 
and  the  withdrawal  of  the  Marchand  Expedition  that  the  Congo 
Independent  State  definitely  occupied  the  Lado  Enclave,  The 
advance  southwards  of  the  Dervishes  to  Bor  and  the  mutiny  in 
1897-8  of  Dhanis's  troops  at  Ndirfi  on  the  edge  of  the  Nile 
basin  checked  at  first  the  Belgian  advance  Nile  wards,  but 
Captain  Chaltin  on  the  14th  February  1897  inflicted  two 
crushinCT  defeats  on  the  Dervish  forces  and  hoisted  the  Congro 
flag  at  Rejaf,  opposite  Baker's  old  station  of  Gondokoro. 

In  1895  in  1 901  the  question  of  a  Belgian  annexation 
of  the  Congo  was  actively  discussed  in  Belgium.  But  although 
(in  1892)  the  Belgian  Constitution  was  revised  to  make  it 
possible  for  that  country  to  possess  colonies,  and  King  Leopold 


438   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


signed  treaties  of  annexation  in  1895  and  made  his  will  in 
favour  of  Belgium  in  1889  and  1901,  nothing  practical  came  of 
these  pourparlers. 

The  judicial  murder  of  Stokes  in  1895,  and  the  articles  of 
Glave  on  his  journey  across  Africa  and  through  the  Congo 
State  [published  in  1896-7  in  the  Century  Magazine^,  combined 
to  produce  a  disagreeable  impression  in  England  and  America 
that  all  was  not  well  in  the  style  of  Congo  administration  and 
commercial  development.  In  1899  and  1900  the  Batetela 
mutineers,  thought  to  have  been  completely  quelled  by  Baron 


230.  REV.  LAWSON  FORFEITT'S  HOUSE  AT  NEW  UNDERHILL,  NEAR  MATADI, 

LOWER  CONGO 

Glave  after  crossing  Africa  reached  Matadi  very  ill  and  exhausted,  and  died  at  Mr.  Forfeitt's  house  at 
Old  Underhill,  a  little  lower  down  the  river. 


Dhanis  and  others,  became  exceedingly  troublesome  in  the 
south-east,  necessitating  arduous  campaigns.  The  misdeeds  of 
the  agents  of  the  Societe  Anversoise  in  the  north  had  raised 
terrible  revolts  amongst  the  Buja  and  the  Ababua. 

In  1 90 1  a  great  sensation  was  made  by  the  arrest  of 
Rabinek,  an  Austrian  trader  who  had  approached  the  south- 
eastern part  of  the  Congo  Free  State  from  British  Central 
Africa,  obeying  all  the  regulations,  and  furnishing  himself  with 
the  necessary  documents.  Nevertheless  Rabinek  was  arrested 
by  Major  Weyns  on  the  African  Lakes  Company's  steamer 
Scotia,  a  British  steamer,  and  within  British  waters  on  Lake 
Mweru.  At  Mtoa,  Rabinek  was  sentenced  by  Major  Weyns 
for  supposed  illegal  trading  to  twelve  months'  imprisonment  and 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE 


a  fine  of  i,ooo  francs.  Desirous  of  appealing  at  Boma  against 
this  sentence,  Rabinek  was  despatched  thither  on  a  journey  of 
more  than  1,500  miles  with  scant  provision  for  his  comfort. 
The  result  was  that  he  died  of  fever  before  reaching  his 
journey's  end.  It  was  further  alleged  that  Rabinek's  property 
to  the  value  of      5,000  was  confiscated  by  the  State  authorities. 

The  successors  of  the  Livingstone  Inland  Mission — the 
Congo-Balolo  missionaries — who  had  chosen  as  their  domain  the 
Balolo  country  south  of  the  Upper  Congo,  where  the  Crown 
Lands  of  King  Leopold  were  situated ;  also  the  American 
Presbyterian  Mission,  which  had  established  stations  on  the 


231.  AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MISSION  CHURCH  AT  STANLEY  POOL 


Kasai  and  the  Lulua,  and  the  American  Baptist  missionary 
Sjoblom  had  from  1899  to  1902  been  transmitting  terrible  stories 
of  the  behaviour  of  the  agents  of  Concessionnaire  companies  and 
of  such  State  forces  as  were  placed  at  their  disposal.  Sir  Charles 
Dilke  took  up  the  cause  of  the  Congo  natives  in  the  Parliament 
and  Press  of  Great  Britain.  The  Aborigines  Protection 
Society  of  Great  Britain  had  already  in  1896  moved  the 
British  Governm.ent  to  champion  the  cause  of  the  native  races 
in  Africa,  more  especially  in  the  Congo  basin.  The  researches 
of  the  Aborigines  Protection  Society  were  summarized  and  pub- 
lished in  1903  in  a  remarkable  book  by  Mr.  H.  R.  Fox-Bourne.^ 

'  Civilizatioti  ifi  Congoland,  a  Story  of  International  Wrong-doing,  by  H.  R. 
Fox-Bourne  :  London,  1903. 


440   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


The  Congo  peoples  were  to  have  another  champion,  how- 
ever, who  by  appealing  possibly  to  a  wider  audience  has 
achieved  remarkable  results.  Mr.  E.  D.  MoreV  for  ten  years 
employed  in  the  shipping  office  of  Messrs.  Elder  Dempster, 
was,  on  account  of  his  intimate  knowledge  of  French,  despatched 
by  that  firm  to  Antwerp  and  Brussels  to  take  charge  of  the 
business  of  their  Congo  line  of  steamers,  a  line  subsidized  by 
the  Congo  Independent  State.  Mr.  Morel,  becoming  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  policy  which  was  being  adopted  by 
King  Leopold  and  the  Congo  State  towards  the  natives,  a 
policy  which  he  defined  as  "a  vast  system  of  criminal  oppres- 
sion," became  so  incensed  at  this  wrong-doing,  that,  in  1 901,  he 
renounced  his  employment  with  the  Liverpool  shipping  firm 
and  constituted  himself  the  champion  of  the  Congo  peoples. 
He  founded  the  Congo  Reform  Association  in  1904  and  be- 
came its  unpaid  secretary  and  organizer. 

As  the  result  of  the  agitation  which  grew  up  in  England 
and  Scotland  after  the  essays  and  speeches  of  Dilke,  Fox- 
Bourne,  and  Morel,  the  British  Government  directed  their 
Consul  on  the  Congo,  Mr.  Roger  Casement,  to  visit  the  regions 
to  which  the  principal  atrocities  were  attributed.  Mr.  Case- 
ment's report  created  a  great  sensation,  as  did  also  the  state- 
ments of  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Weeks  of  the  Baptist  Mission.  These 
were  amongst  the  causes  that  determined  King  Leopold  to 
appoint  a  commission  of  his  own,  consisting  of  one  Swiss,  one 
Belgian,  and  one  Italian,  to  visit  the  Congo  basin  and  report  to 
His  Majesty  on  the  condition  of  affairs.  Long  prior  to  this,  in 
1896,  the  King  had  appointed  a  kind  of  committee  from 
amongst  the  missionary  societies  (Catholic  and  Protestant)  to 
protect  the  rights  of  the  natives,  and  George  Grenfell  was  its 
secretary  ;  but,  as  he  himself  remarks  in  his  letters,  this  com- 
mittee was  a  nullity."  The  members  of  it  were  separated  in 
some  cases  a  thousand  miles  from  each  other,  and  several 
hundred  miles  from  the  Domaine  de  la  Couronne  or  the  terri- 

1  Mr.  Morel,  according  to  an  article  in  the  World  newspaper  (December  4  1906), 
is  directly  descended  on  the  maternal  side  from  the  celebrated  Count  van  Hoorn  of 
the  Netherlands  revolt  against  Spain  (executed  on  the  market-place  of  Brussels  by 
Alva,  1568).  After  this  tragedy  the  van  Hoorn  (de  Home)  family  emigrated  to 
England  [Norwich],  where  they  became  Quakers.  Mr.  Morel's  father  was  of  French 
extraction,  of  the  family  of  Morel-de-\'ille. 

"  If  the  Authorities  are  really  in  earnest  about  rectifying  abuses  they  can  do  it 
without  a  Commission  of  Missionaries,  and  if  they  are  not  in  earnest  it  will  require  a 
Commission  with  a  very  different  constitution  to  produce  any  practical  result.  Not 
one  of  the  Commissioners  resides  in  the  districts  where  the  cruelties  are  reported  ! 
I  think  I  am  nearest  and  I  am  two  hundred  miles  away  !  If  in  serving  on  this  Com- 
mission I  can  serve  the  Congo,  I  shall  be  very,  very  glad,  but  I  confess  I  am  not  very 
sanguine."    (Grenfell  to  A.  H.  Baynes,  November  26  1896.) 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CONGO  STATE 


tories  of  the  concessionnaire  companies  where  the  wrong-doing 
was  taking-  place.  No  provision,  I  believe,  was  made  for  the 
travelling  expenses  of  this  committee,  nor  were  any  facilities 
given  to  its  members  for  obtaining  evidence. 

But  the  King's  Commission,  though  it  was  long  in  producing 
its  report,  gave  to  the  world  no  reassuring  account  as  to  the 
native  policy  of  King  Leopold's  Government,  in  fact  did  very 
little  to  dissipate  the  effect  produced  by  the  previous  accusations 
of  consuls  and  missionaries. 

Then  in  February  to  March  1906  occurred  the  Five  Days' 
Debate  in  the  Belgian  House  of  Representatives,  resulting  in 
terrible  denunciations  of  the  Leopoldian  system  and  a  moral 
victory  for  the  party  of  reform.  In  June  1906  King  Leopold 
issued  several  remarkable  declarations  regarding  his  attitude  and 
intentions  towards  the  Congo,^  defending  the  policy  of  spending 
the  Congo  surpluses  and  revenues  on  Belgium.  The  complete 
disparity  between  the  King's  views  and  his  interpretation  of 
his  rights  and  the  opinions  of  the  Belgian  party  of  reform  and 
of  the  signatory  Powers  of  the  Act  of  Berlin  brought  the 
Congo  Question  to  a  crisis.  Belgian  annexation  on  a  just  basis 
consistent  with  the  provisions  of  the  Berlin  Act  and  the  recog- 
nition of  native  rights  is  the  solution  favoured  by  all  reasonable 
men  and  women  while  these  words  are  being  printed. 

Meantime  the  present  condition  of  affairs  in  the  Congo  Free 
State  may  be  summed  up  as  follows  :  Considerable  progress  in 
railway  construction,  but  much  native  discontent  in  the  north- 
centre  and  east.  As  regards  the  southern  or  south-western 
portion  of  the  Congo  territories  the  situation  is  unsatisfactory. 
In  the  vicinity  of  Luluabourg,  on  the  Lulua  River,  is  the  resi- 
dence of  the  powerful  chief  of  the  Zappo-Zaps.  This  individual 
was  a  head-man  or  brigand  chief  of  the  Basonge  people,  a  war- 
like race  dwelling;  between  the  Sankuru  and  the  Lomami  and 
probably  related  to  the  Bakuba  and  Batetela.  The  Zappo-Zap 
chief  enrolled  himself  first  of  all  as  an  ally  of  the  Arabs.  He 
thus  gathered  round  him  a  considerable  following  of  Manyema, 
Batetela,  and  other  warlike  raiders.  After  the  Arabs  were 
crushed  he  took  the  side  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  and  was 
allowed  to  establish  himself  with  a  strong  following^  of  Basong-e 
warriors  as  a  ruling-  chief  between  the  Lulua  and  the  Sankuru. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  of  late  years  this  man  has  carried 
on  a  slave  trade  as  unblushing  and  as  disastrous  as  the  Arabs 
did  in  their  worst  days.    The  slaves  in  question  are  despatched 

^  Africa  No.  i  (1907).  Correspondence  respecting  the  Independent  State  of  the 
Congo,  pp.  4  to  12. 


442   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


through  the  Lunda  country  towards  Angola,  and  it  is  certain 
that  most  of  them  find  their  way  to  the  Portuguese  cocoa- 
planting  islands. 

It  is  not  necessary  at  this  juncture  to  launch  out  into  an 
attack  on  the  plantation  system  of  Sa5  Thome  or  Principe  : 
the  Portuoruese  authorities  on  the  Anoola  coast  no  longfer  find 
themselves  able  to  defend  it.  Large  numbers  of  hapless  negroes 
from  the  Luba,  Lunda,  and  Bailundo  territories  have  been 
enrolled  as  labourers  for  a  seven  years'  term  of  service.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  they  are  well  and  kindly  treated  once  they 
reach  Sao  Thome.  But  when  their  time  is  up  they  are  homeless 
people,  as  it  is  impossible  for  them  to  return  to  their  homes  in 
the  heart  of  Africa.  Indeed,  they  have  no  desire  to  do  so, 
knowing  that  they  would  run  the  risk  of  being  re-enslaved  or 
eaten  by  their  compatriots.  So  they  drift  back  into  virtual 
slavery  at  Sao  Thome.  But  that  Zappo-Zap  and  Portuguese 
half-castes  should  be  allowed  to  carry  on  these  dev^astating 
razzias  is  indeed  a  blemish  on  the  fame  of  the  Conoro  State  and 
of  the  kingdom  of  Portugal.  At  one  time  this  matter  was  taken 
up  by  the  American  Presbyterian  missionaries  on  the  Lulua 
River.  They  appealed  to  a  Vice-Governor  of  the  State  or  to 
some  passing  official  of  lesser  rank,  and  obtained  from  him  the 
enunciation  of  the  principle  by  which  any  person  declared  a 
slave  by  Zappo-Zap  or  any  other  chief  could  at  once  claim  his 
freedom  on  payment  of  sixteen  pieces  of  cloth.  No  sooner 
did  this  edict  become  known  than  enormous  crowds  of  people 
flocked  to  the  State  posts  or  to  the  mission  stations,  each  with 
his  or  her  sixteen  pieces  of  cloth,  claiming  the  letter  of 
freedom. 

Some  few  certificates  of  freedom  were  issued,  and  proved 
potent  in  their  effects,  owing  to  the  almost  religious  reverence 
with  which  the  ne^ro  regards  a  written  document.  But 
Zappo-Zap  complained.  A  more  authoritative  representative 
of  the  State  came  on  tour  and  examined  into  this  question, 
and  annulled  the  edict  {teste  the  Rev.  ]\I.  Martin).^  He  said, 
"There  is  no  slavery  in  the  Congo  Free  State,  consequently 
these  people  have  no  need  of  certificates  of  freedom.  At  the 
same  time,  we  cannot  interfere  between  a  chief  and  his  people." 
The  result  has  been  to  increase  the  power  of  Zappo-Zap,  and 
to  cause  at  the  time  these  words  are  being  written  a  condition 

^  Of  the  American  Presbyterian  Mission,  Kasai-Lulua  rivers.  It  was  the 
Rev.  W.  M.  Morrison  of  this  mission  who  first  drew  attention  to  the  atrocious  mis- 
deeds of  Zappo-Zap's  people,  when  he  addressed  in  1899  a  direct  personal  appeal  to 
King  Leopold. 


444   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


of  miserable  unhappiness  amongst  the  people  confided  to  the 
charge  of  this  unmitigated  scoundrel. 

Further  to  the  west  in  this  central  part  of  the  Kasai  basin 
there  is  another  chief  as  powerful  as  Zappo-Zap,  but  no  ally — 
on  the  contrary,  a  bitter  enemy — of  the  Congo  Free  State. 
This  is  Kalambo,  of  whom  more  may  be  heard  in  the  future. 
He  is  now  recognized  by  the  people  as  the  king  of  the  Bena 
Lulua.^  Since  the  crumbling  of  the  Lunda  empire,  which  in 
a  sense  has  gone  to  sleep  under  the  easy  rule  of  Portugal,  the 
only  really  independent  and  prominent  native  potentate  in 
south-central  Congoland  is  Kalambo.  His  territory  is  long 
rather  than  broad,  stretching  as  it  does  westwards  from  the 
vicinity  of  the  upper  Sankuru  River  across  the  central  Kasai 
into  the  eastern  part  of  Portuguese  West  Africa — the  land 
of  the  Tukongo,  Tupindi,  Bena  Lulua,  and  Bakioko.  Kalambo 
is  not  actually  hostile  towards  the  Portuguese,  who  leave  him 
very  much  to  himself,  but  he  displays  a  deadly  hostility  towards 
"  Bula  Matadi."  In  earlier  days  he  was  on  friendly  terms  with 
the  first  pioneers  of  the  Congo  Free  State.  Through  them 
or  from  the  Arabs  he  received — or  later  on,  captured — large 
quantities  of  arms  of  precision  and  cartridges.  But  he  and 
his  people  were  treated  in  a  fashion  which  can  only  be 
called  outraoeous  bv  the  aorents  of  a  certain  concessioniiaire 
company,  or  by  one  or  two  officers  of  the  State.  He 
turned  therefore  against  the  Belgian  power,  and  inflicted  on 
its  forces  several  severe  defeats.  After  this  he  announced 
that  he  wished  no  longer  to  fight  with  the  white  man,  if  the 
white  man  would  leave  him  alone ;  his  territory  would  be 
limited  by  such-and-such  rivers,  and  if  no  white  man  entered 
it  he  would  not  allow  his  people  to  go  beyond  these  limits  to 
attack  the  Europeans  or  their  subjects.  As  regards  the 
missionaries,  he  fully  appreciated  their  disinterested  work,  and 
he  would  have  liked  much  that  his  people  should  "  learn  to 
read  books  and  hear  about  God."  But  he  knew  that  if  he 
admitted  missionaries,  somehow  or  other  traders  would  follow, 
and  after  traders  w^ould  come  State  officials.  Therefore  he 
had  determined  to  refuse  access  to  his  lands  to  any  Europeans. 

Disreo-ardino-  this  warnino-,  aQents  of  the  Kasai  and  other 
companies  penetrated  his  country.  They  were  promptly 
killed. 

'  Rua,  Lua,  and  Lulua  are  only  variant  forms  of  the  tribal  name  of  Luba. 


CHAPTER  XX 


THE  MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  AND  ACHIEVEMENTS 
OF  THE  CONGO  STATE 

IN  December  1885,  when  the  missionaries  of  all  denomina- 
tions had  scarcely  ceased  acclaiming  heartily  the  creation  of 
the  "ConQO  Free  State  as  an  alternative  to  the  extension 
of  Portuguese  influence  (the  Baptists  being  amongst  the  warmest 
friends  of  King  Leopold's  enterprise),  Grenfell  wrote  a  note  at 
Stanley  Pool  complaining  that  the  State  was  already  beginning 
to  infringe  the  provisions  of  the  Act  of  Berlin  by  claiming  all 
the  land  as  State  property  and  refusing  sites  to  a  missionary 
society  as  well  as  to  the  Dutch  Trading  House. 

In  1890  he  writes  in  his  diary  :  "  Bula  Matadi  has  be- 
come disliked  amongst  the  people  of  the  Upper  Congo,  and  is 
called  Ipanga  Ngunda,  which  means  "  Destroys  the  country." 
In  May  1890  Grenfell  first  complains  of  the  action  of  the 
Congo  State  officials  in  regard  to  ivory,  which  had  been 
made  a  Government  monopoly,  in  practice,  if  not  in  theory. 
The  representative  of  the  State  at  Bumba  on  the  northern 
Congo  was  said  to  fire  on  all  canoes  carrying  ivory  westwards, 
whilst  he  also  prevented  canoes  going  eastwards  from  Bopoto 
to  purchase  ivory.  "  The  State  officers  having  a  commission  on 
the  ivory  they  get,  they  are  keen  about  securing  all  they  can." 

On  June  17  1890  Grenfell's  diary  records  the  first  hint 
being  given  as  to  the  possibility  of  Concessionnaire  companies 
coming  into  existence  on  the  Conoo.  He  had  received  the 
information  from  an  American,  Colonel  Williams,  who  went  up 
the  Congo  as  far  as  the  Stanley  Falls,  and  told  Grenfell  on  his 
return  that  an  American  agent  at  Brussels  (Mr.  Sanford)  had 
been  discussing  with  the  Kino-  in  1888  the  idea  of  creatingr 
such  companies  to  deal  with  the  development  of  the  State. 

When  Stanley's  expedition  was  conducting  and  concluding 
operations  for  establishing  its  "  International"  stations  between 

'  It  is  not  clear  how  the  official  title  of  "  L'Etat  Independant  dii  Congo  '  came 
to  be  rendered  "  Congo  Free  State,"  this  translation  not  being  strictly  correct. 
Stanley — the  wish  being  father  to  the  thought — seems  to  have  originated  the  common 
English  name,  "  Congo  Free  State."  The  nati\  e  name  is  "  Bula  Matadi,"  the  nick- 
name originally  given  to  Stanley. 

445 


446   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Boma  and  Stanley  Fails  (between  1882  and  1884),  considerable 
pains  were  taken  to  secure  the  sovereign  rights  of,  first,  the 
Comite  d'Etudes  du  Haut  Congo  and,  later,  the  Association 
Internationale  Africaine  over  both  banks  of  the  Lower  Congo 
between  Vivi  and  Stanley  Pool  ;  also  along  the  Niadi-Kwilu 
River  and  the  north  bank  of  the  Congo  between  Banana  and 
Vivi,  Payments  were  made  in  goods,  usually  adequate  to  the 
area  of  unoccupied  land  thus  acquired.  It  is  possible  that 
further  treaties  or  purchases  of  land  were  made  on  the  south 


232.  RUBBER  AND  IVORY  AT  THE  STATE  DEPOT,  MOBEKA,  UPPER  CONGO 


shore  of  Stanley  Pool  and  along  the  east  bank  of  the  "Chenal," 
the  narrow  part  of  the  Congo  between  Chumbiri  and  Stanley 
Pool,  but  if  so,  they  were  never  published. 

Soon  after  these  arrangements  were  made  (which  at  most 
secured  for  the  Congo  State  strips  of  land  along  the  Congo 
course  from  Banana  Point  to  Stanley  Pool  on  the  mouth  of  the 
Kwa)  the  Act  of  Berlin  was  signed,  and  the  Congo  Indepen- 
dent State  sprang  into  existence  as  an  African  Sovereign 
Power  recognized  by  all  the  leading  Nations  of  the  world.  King 
Leopold  thereupon  took  it  for  granted  that  because  Europe 
had  given  him  authority  over  nearly  a  million  square  miles  of 
land  in  South-Central  Africa  that  was  sufficient  in  the  way  of 
title  deeds  :  any  reference  to  the  twenty  millions  of  people  and 
their  100,000  chiefs,  kings,  or  sultans  was  unnecessary.     By  a 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  447 


decree  he  attributed  to  himself  as  Kinor-Sovereion  the  owner- 
ship  of  all  the  vacant  lands  not  actually  in  the  possession  of 
natives  dwelling  on  them. 

This  method  in  the  hands  of  a  hicrh-minded,  conscientious 
potentate  might  at  the  start  have  been  the  best  and  simplest 
way  of  solving-  the  land  question  of  the  Congo.  King  Leopold 
might  then  have  proceeded  to  arrange  in  course  of  time  a 
definite  land  settlement  for  the  natives  over  whom  he  was  the 
self-constituted  suzerain  or  sovereign.  By  the  issue  of  these 
decrees  he  was  in  a  position  to  prevent  any  reckless  or  fraudu- 
lent buying  up  of  native  territories  by  uncontrolled  adventurers. 

As  Sovereign  of  the  State  by  the  provisions  of  the  Act  of 
Berlin  he  was  naturally  obliged  to  afford  every  assistance  to 
missionary  societies,  without  distinction  of  creed,  that  they 
might  -obtain  the  necessary  land  for  their  propagandist  and 
educational  establishments. 

Nevertheless,  as  we  see  in  Grenfell's  letters  or  notes  from 
1885  to  the  time  of  his  death,  the  King-Sovereign  restricted 
the  enterprise  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  (and  that  of 
other  missions)  in  the  most  unjustifiable  manner.  The  Baptists, 
for  example,  have  never  been  permitted  to  this  day  to  acquire 
one  square  yard  of  land  on  which  to  build  a  station  between  the 
mouth  of  the  Aruwimi  and  the  British  frontier  of  Uganda,  and 
they  are  under  the  same  disadvantage  regarding  an  extension  of 
their  work  up  the  Lualaba- Congo.  Along  the  thousand  miles  of 
river  frontier  between  Stanley  Falls  and  the  Katanga  region 
they  may  not  obtain  an  acre  of  settlement.  Similar  difficulties 
had  been  placed  in  the  way  of  certain  Roman  Catholic  missions 
down  to  a  recent  date,  but  these  have  since  been  adjusted  by  an 
agreement  with  the  Roman  Church.  Other  Protestant  missions 
besides  that  of  the  Baptists  have  sometimes  only  been  able  to 
acquire  a  site  for  building  and  settling  down  by  leaving  the 
territory  under  the  control  of  the  Congo  State  and  going  into 
lands  still  governed  by  powerful  native  chiefs  who  have,  for  a 
time,  at  any  rate,  set  the  State  at  defiance,  but  have  allowed 
missionaries  to  build  within  their  limits. 

The  fact  is,  not  to  waste  too  many  words  on  this  sad 
subject,  the  foundation  of  the  Congo  Free  State  has  evinced  a 
lack  of  statesmanship,  and  an  incredible  ignorance  of  African 
conditions  on  the  part  of  theorists,  amiable  and  unamiable,  who 
have  legislated  for  this  million  square  miles  of  Central  Africa 
from  Brussels.  Several  of  the  Conoo  Secretaries  of  State  or 
home  administrators  have  never  seen  Africa,  unless  it  has 
been  in  a  winter  visit  to  Alg-iers.    Even  the  Governors-General 


448   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


or  heads  of  departments  representing  the  King-Sovereign  in 
Africa  have  restricted  their  sojourn  a  great  deal  too  much  to 
Boma,  and  are  and  have  been  far  more  ignorant  about  the  real 
conditions  of  the  people  of  the  vast  inner  basin  of  the  great 
river  than  is  many  a  well-informed  English  geographer  or 
librarian  who  has  never  seen  the  Congo. 

Side  by  side  with  this  heart-breaking  incompetence  has 
been  (as  the  pages  of  this  book  should  show)  some  of  the  most 
splendid  pioneering  work  ever  accomplished  in  Africa  by  any 
European  nation.  As  I  have  ventured  to  write  at  an  earlier 
date  :  "In  carrying  out  such  a  stupendous  work  as  the  dis- 
covery, mapping,  conquest,  pacification  of,  and  developing  the 
means  of  communication  over  such  a  vast  territory  as  the 
nearly  one  million  square  miles  of  the  Congo  State,  no  monarch 
or  leader  of  men  was  better  or  more  loyally  served  than  King- 
Leopold  has  been  by  the  greater  number  of  the  Belgians, 
Scandinavians,  or  Italians  employed  in  the  construction  and 
development  of  the  Congo  Free  State." 

The  men  who  performed  this  work  for  their  King-Sovereign 
for  the  most  part  received  pitifully  small  wages  in  return  for 
devoting  the  best  years  of  their  lives  to  a  singularly  hard 
existence  in  a  most  unhealthy  part  of  tropical  Africa. 

They  were  ungenerously  or  unwisely  treated  as  regards  their 
emoluments.  A  system  was  brought  into  force  by  which  these 
agents  of  the  State  received  in  the  first  place  a  living  wage — an 
annual  salary  of,  let  us  say,  ^80  to  ^200  (on  an  average),  and 
in  addition  a  commission^  on  the  ivory  or  on  other  produce  that 
they  could  purchase  for  the  State.  This  system,  which  was  at 
the  bottom  of  so  much  of  the  early  Congo  troubles,  urged  reck- 
less, conscienceless  men  to  abuse  the  power  of  their  guns  and 
soldiers  in  raiding  the  country,  in  imposing  all  sorts  of  taxes,  fines, 
and  contributions  on  native  villages  or  native  chiefs,  in  declaringr 
to  be  the  exclusive  property  of  the  State  all  ivory  and,  later,  all 
the  produce  of  the  forests  outside  the  circle  of  native  habitations. 

Of  course  many  of  the  Belgians,  being  good-hearted  men 
of  fine  principles,  remained  poor  and  contented  themselves 

'  "There  can  be  no  doubt  that  commissions  on  results  of  produce  collected  are 
practically  continued,  for  it  is  admitted  that  Commandants  and  members  of  the  Staff 
have  a  pecuniary  interest  in  coffee  and  cocoa  planted  and  rubber  and  ivory  brought  in. 
It  seems  as  though  poor  Von  Mueller  of  Yalemba,  incited  by  the  prospects  of  a  con- 
siderable addition  to  his  t)aitemcnt  by  energy  of  administration  during  the  last  few 
montlis,  was  tempted  to  exercise  such  pressure  as  resulted  in  his  being  speared  to 
death  on  the  6th  of  September  1899,  two  days  after  the  Peace  had  passed  up.  People 
had  been  threatening  him  for  some  time  ;  and  giving  them  their  opportunity  by  going 
with  only  six  soldiers,  he  lost  his  life  and  two  of  his  soldiers  as  well.  He  has  been 
replaced  by  an  Italian."  (Grenfell  s  Diary,  November  1899.) 


I. —  2  G 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  451 


with  glory.  They  were  looked  up  to  as  patriarchs  by  the 
native  communities,  to  whom  they  had  been  a  veritable  blessing 
in  that  they  had  put  down  (at  Bolobo,  for  example,  in  1896)^ 
the  horrible  conditions  of  native  life  to  which  I  have  already 
referred  and  had  brought  peace  and  prosperity.  But  nien  of 
this  kind  were  not  favoured  for  promotion,  except  they  had 
achieved  some  extraordinary  geographical  exploit  or  brilliant 
victory  in  warfare.  They  did  not  add  to  the  revenues  of  the 
State. 

From  1879  to  the  year  1890  (approximately)  King  Leopold 
supported  the  cost  of  creating  and  maintaining  the  Congo  Free 
State  by  an  annual  subvention  (it  is  said)  rising  by  degrees 
from  ^20,000  to  ^40,000."    Until  the  Brussels  Act  came  into 

'  After  the  State  definitely  occupied  Bolobo  in  August  1896,  Grenfell  noticed 
a  great  and  rapid  impro\'ement  in  the  condition  of  the  people,  the  suppression  of 
burial  murders  and  killing  for  witchcraft,  and  less  violent  punishments  for  theft. 

^  The  total  amount  spent  by  the  King  on  the  Congo,  1879  to  1890,  is  computed 
from  what  is  known  at  between  ^400,000  and  ^500,000.  [Outside  subscriptions  to  the 
Comit^  d'Etudes  du  Haut  Congo,  mainly  from  England,  were  reckoned  at  about 
1 6,888,  and  in  1887  the  subscribers  were  paid  off  in  Congo  State  bonds  to  that 
amount  (422,220  francs)  to  bear  25  per  cent  interest  after  1899.]  1888  a  Congo 
loan  to  the  extent  of  150,000,000  francs  (^6,000,000)  was  authorized  by  decree,  but 
apparently  only  94,000,000  francs  (/^3, 760,000)  was  issued  between  1888  and  1898. 
Belgian  critics  of  the  Congo  State  have  alleged  that  only  ^1,000,000  of  this  issue  (the 
deficit  occurring  principally  in  1888)  reached  the  Congo. 

In  1890  Belgium  advanced  ^1,000,000  to  the  Congo  State,  and  in  1895,  ^272,176, 
this  total  loan  of  ^1,272, 176  not  to  be  repaid  if  Belgium  e\  entually  annexed  the  State, 
and  only  to  bear  3  per  cent  interest  if  Belgium  did  not  annex.  Between  1896  and 
1898,  ^560,000  was  borrowed  from  or  guaranteed  by  Belgium. 

In  1901  a  loan  of  ^2,000,000  at  4  per  cent  was  raised  for  public  works  and  rail- 
ways, and  the  State  guaranteed  further  a  4  per  cent  interest  on  another  j^i,o  o,oco 
for  the  Upper  Congo  Great  Lakes  Railway.  In  1904  (apparentl))  another  loan  of 
200,000  was  issued  or  partly  issued  at  3  per  cent,  and  between  igo6  and  1907, 
^643,600  was  added  to  the  public  debt. 

The  total  indebtedness — loans  sanctioned  and  issued — of  the  Congo  State  may 
be  calculated  as  high  as  ^16,887,242  ;  but  if  the  lottery  loan  (^6,000,000)  of  1888  is 
deducted  (as  this  seems  in  some  way  to  have  been  cancelled)  and  if  the  amount  due 
to  Belgium  (^1,272,176)  is  omitted  (as  it  would  be  effaced  on  annexation),  there  results 
a  sum  of  £g^6ij,o66.  Deduct  from  this  the  ^5,600,000  of  unissued  1905  bonds  and 
the  debt  bearing  interest  may  certainly  be  stated  at  ^4,015,066,  bearing  interest  at  the 
rate  of  ^166,028  per  an/mui.  But  the  issued  debt  is  now  officially  stated  at 
£4,415,066 :  this  no  doubt  includes  the  ^16,888  owing  to  the  foreign  subscribers  to 
the  funds  of  the  Comite  du  Haut  Congo,  the  three  millions  spent  on  railway  con- 
struction by  the  State  or  pri\ate  companies,  but  leaves  out  tlie  whole  of  the  projected 
issue  of  bonds  to  bearer  authorized  in  1904. 

It  is  charged  against  King  Leopold's  administration  that  out  of  the  debt  incurred 
by  1888,  over  ^1,000,000  has  not  been  spent  on  the  Congo  but  in  Belgium,  and  on 
objects  in  no  way  connected  with  the  Congo  Free  State.  This  computation  is  made 
after  excepting  some  £joo,ooo  spent  on  the  Tervueren  Congo  Museum  and  on  first- 
class  scientific  research — an  expenditure  to  which  no  objection  can  be  raised. 

Apart  from  all  this,  the  King  is  said  to  have  made  an  average  profit  yearly,  since 
1895,  out  of  the  produce  of  the  Domaine  de  la  Couronne  of  ^300,000.  Calculate  this 
for  only  ten  years  instead  of  twelve  and  you  have  ^3,000,000.  It  is  also  stated  that 
the  royal  share  in  the  profits  of  the  concessionnaire  companies  since  1895  amounts 
to  about  ^2,000,000. 

Assuming  that  King  LeopolJ  had  no  intention  of  being  a  u.ere  company 


452   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


force  in  1892  the  State  could  only  raise  revenue  by  internal 
taxation,  by  the  sale  of  lands,  the  issue  of  certain  licences,  and 
the  levying-  of  export  duties  on  produce.  The  eagerness  with 
which  it  had  put  even  these  limited  powers  into  force  drew 
many  a  protest  from  the  British,  Dutch,  and  Portuguese 
merchants  of  the  Lower  Congo,  as  well  as  from  the  mission- 
aries, Catholic  as  well  as  Protestant.  (One  of  the  French 
Fathers  remarked  bitterly  in  conversation  with  a  British  Consul 
that  the  only  thing  in  Congo  life  the  State  Government  did  not 
tax  was  fever.) 

After  1892,  import  duties,  limited  of  course  to  "a  moderate 
tariff"^  as  provided  for  by  the  Brussels  and  Berlin  Acts,  were 
imposed  on  the  frontiers  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  and  of 
course  added  appreciably  to  the  revenue. 

From  1890  it  might  be  said  that  the  country  of  Belgium 
had  relieved  King  Leopold  of  financial  responsibility  for  the 
deficits  still  occurring  in  Congo  administration,  by  their  agree- 
ments to  furnish  or  to  Guarantee  loans  to  the  Conoo  State. 
King  Leopold  therefore  after  1890,  or  at  latest  1901,  was  not 
called  upon  to  make  further  sacrifices  for  the  creation  of  a 
civilized  state  of  Central  Africa.  He  should  therefore— some 
might  say — have  regulated  the  advance  of  his  rule  over  the 

promoter,  or  of  turning  his  sovereignty  over  Central  Africa  into  a  money-making 
enterprise,  pure  and  simple  ;  yet  agreeing  that  he  had  decided  to  abandon  the  role  of 
disinterested  philanthropist  and  had  become  a  hard-headed  man  of  business  anxious 
to  get  his  money  back  and  a  trifle  over;  grant  him  a  theoretical  "civil  list"  of 
^20,000  a  year  from  1886  to  1907  :  and  his  account  with  the  Congo  Free  State  would 
stand  thus  : — 
Cr. 

Money  spent  out  of  the  Privy  Purse  : 
1879-90  (say)  .... 
1891-1901  (say)  .... 
Twenty-two  years'  "civil  hst  "  as 
Sovereign  of  the  Congo  State  at 
;f 20,000  a  year 
Interest  at  4  per  cent  for  (say)  seven- 
teen years  on  ^'500,000  invested 
on  State  creation  and  mainten- 
ance (1879-90)  and  on  400,000 
for  (say)  seven  years 


£ 

500,000 
400,000 


440,000 


452,000 

792,000 


Dr.  £ 
Money  received  : 

( 1 )  Revenue  from  Crown  Domain 

(say)    .       .       .        .       .  3,000,000 

(2)  From concessioHiiaiiccom-^3Mts 

(say)  

(3)  Balance  of  loans  or  surplus  of 
Congo  revenues  (say)  . 


2,000,000 


1,000,000 


;^6,ooo,ooo 


The  figures  given  in  this  note  are  mostly  quoted  from  the  statements  made  m  the 
Debate  on  the  Congo  which  took  place  in  the  Belgian  Chamber  of  Representatives 
during  February-March  1906,  together  w  ith  other  and  more  recent  sources  of  infor- 
mation, mostly  Belgian.  The  amounts  on  the  creditor  side  are  somewhat  over- 
estimated, those  on  the  debtor  side  are  stated  under  the  totals  usually  quoted.  If  this 
account  be  approximately  correct  it  will  be  seen  that  King  Leopold  owes  the  Congo 
Government  and  the  public  opinion  of  the  civilized  world— and  his  own  record  in 
history — a  sum  of  over  ;^4,ooo,ood.  (H.  H.  J.) 

1  Though  somehow  or  other  this  ranges  as  high  as  30  per  cent  ad  valorem  on 
some  articles  and  is  never  less  than  10  per  cent. 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  453 


Congo  basin  in  proportion  to  the  revenue  which  could  be 
gathered  in  without  oppression. 

The  argument  of  his  apologists  would  be  that 
under  the  circumstances  this  was  a  "counsel  of  per- 
fection." The  six  or  seven  thousand  miles  of  Congo 
frontier  bordering  on  the  vaguely  defined  Spheres 
of  influence  or  Protectorates  of  France,  Britain, 
Germany,  and  Portugal  required  patrolling.  None 
of  these  Powers  were  particularly  scrupulous  in  the 
years  that  followed  1885  in  refraining  from  a  desire 
to  filch  chunks  of  territory  from  King  Leopold's 
domain.  In  fact,  soon  after  the  Act  of  Berlin  was 
signed  the  contributory  Powers  began  to  regret  that 
they  had  handed  over  such  a  magnificent  territory 
to  the  control  of  the  Belgian  Sovereign.  The 
journeys  of  Grenfell,  Wissmann,  and  Wolf ;  of  the 
De  Brazza  brothers,  and  of  Vangele  ;  of  Delcom- 
mune,  Thys,  Dhanis,  Hanolet,  Roget,  G.  and  P.  Le 
Marinel,  and  Hodister,  had  revealed  the  rare  possi- 
bilities of  this  interior  basin  of  the  Congo  for  water 
transport,  its  immense  stores  of  ivory  and  amazing 
productiveness  in  rubber.  There  were  also  the 
minerals  of  Katanga,  already  ear-marked  by  such 
bold  British  spirits  as  contemplated  an  advance  from 
the  Zambezi  northwards.  We  will  take  it  for  oranted 
therefore  that  in  desiring  to  found  a  maonificent 
colonial  domain  for  Belgium  while  at  the  same  time 
brinCTing-  a  wholesome  civilization  into  the  blood- 
soaked  basin  of  the  Congo,  the  King  of  the  Belgians 
felt  that  he  must  obtain  other  resources  than  loans 
from  his  little  country  on  the  North  Sea.  Perhaps, 
also,  he  may  have  legitimately  regarded  the  ex- 
penditure of  his  own  moneys  and  the  fortune  of 
his  dead  son  in  the  lioht  of  an  advance,  a  loan  to  ,    ,  f-^"^. 

.  C  '  An  elephant  s  tusk 

Beloium  and  to  the  ConQO   to  be  subsequently  [romtheUpperMu. 

111  1  bangi,  pared  down 

repaid  when  the  country  could  be  froverned  at  a  and  pierced  to  form 

A  ^  o  an  immense  ivory 

profit. 

Followinof,  as  he  did  so  often,  in  the  footsteps  of  "ported 
British  pioneers  of  empire,  he  was  particularly  struck  fo^m. 
with  the  ideas  and  methods  of  Cecil  Rhodes.  Undoubtedly, 
from  what  was  going  on  in  South  and  South-East  Africa, 
and  also  from  the  advice  of  the  American  ex-Envoy,  H.  S. 
Sanford,  he  entertained  the  idea  of  these  Concessionnaire 
companies,  amongst  whom  a  large  part  of  the  Congo  basin 


par 

itofi 
■  ory 
flute.  A  good  deal 
of  the  ivory  first 
from  the 
as  in  this 


454   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


should  be  parcelled  out.  To  repay  himself  for  the  sums 
advanced  (we  may  suppose)  and  to  provide  a  "civil  list"  for 
the  King-Sovereign,  he  had  already  set  aside  the  Domaine 
de  la  Couronne — a  territory  about  seven  times  the  size  of 
Belgium — which  was  marked  out  in  the  very  centre  of  the 
Congo  State. 

Outside  this  Domaine  de  la  Couronne,  principally  to  the 
north  of  it  and  of  the  third  degree  of  S.  Latitude,  about  half 
the  area  of  the  Congo  Independent  State  was  transformed  into 
the   Domaine   Prive,   in  other  words   became  the  exclusive 


235.  A  WOODINC  POST  FOR  STATE  STEAMERS,  UPPER  CONGO 


property  of  the  State,  its  land  revenues  (never,  I  believe, 
publicly  audited  and  accounted  for)  being  devoted  in  theory 
to  the  maintenance  of  the  State.  Within  the  vast  extent 
of  these  State  lands  were  created  a  number  of  subsidiarv 
properties,  monopolies  which  were  handed  over  to  private 
companies,  to  "trusts." 

What  remained  of  Congo  territories  to  the  south  and  west 
of  the  King's  Crown  property  and  outside  the  State's  Domaine 
Prive  was  at  first  left  open  ;  then  between  1898  and  1906  was 
allotted  to  other  conccssionnaii'e  companies  or  trusts  (see  Ap- 
pendix). As  the  Domaine  National  (formerly  the  Domaine 
Prive)  restricts  commerce  to  the  .State's  licensees  there  is  nothing 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  455 


left  to  be  exploited  by  small  traders  or  the  general  public, 
except  along  the  banks  of  the  Lower  Congo. 

Now  if  these  proceedings  had  been  carried  out  by  a  Cecil 
Rhodes,  a  Taubman  Goldie,  William  Mackinnon,  George 
Mackenzie,  or  by  any  other  capitalist  or  captain  of  industry, 
on  to  whose  shoulders  the  British  Government  had  shifted,  in 
its  customary  evasiveness,  the  burden  of  empire,  they  would 
have  been  (in  theory)  what  the  world  might  have  expected. 
Men  such  as  these  would  not  ordinarily  risk  their  lives,  capital, 
and  energies  for  philanthropic  or  even  imperial  purposes  alone. 
The  policy  of  conferring  sovereign  rights  on  their  enterprise 
might  prove  a  questionable  one  as  regards  the  interests  of  the 
general  polity  ;  but  if  the  rest  of  the  world  acquiesced  in  the 
British  flag  being  hoisted  under  these  conditions,  there  was  an 
end  of  the  matter :  especially  if  the  government  of  these 
chartered  companies  proved  on  the  whole  fair  and  kindly  to 
the  natives  and  regardful  of  their  just  rights. 

But  King  Leopold  stood  forward  from  1876  to  1885  as  the 
champion  of  more  lofty  ideas  than  those  which  were  quoted 
by  the  various  great  pioneers  of  British,  French,  or  German 
enterprise  in  the  foundation  of  African  states.  It  is  true  that 
he  was  careful  at  all  times  to  say  and  write  very  little  himself 
which  would  commit  him  to  any  definite  line  of  action  ;  but 
he  allowed,  unrebuked  and  uncontradicted,  responsible  Belgian 
statesmen  to  speak  in  his  name  and  to  give  such  professions 
of  philanthropy  and  disinterestedness  as  astonished  the  cynical 
world,  even  of  that  simpler-minded  age  of  twenty-five  years 

He  was  a  king,  exceedingly  rich,  grandson  of  Louis 
Philippe,  cousin  of  Queen  Victoria,  the  husband  of  an  Austrian 
Archduchess  ;  and  the  ruler  of  one  of  the  most  prosperous, 
remarkable  and  distinguished  countries  of  Europe,  in  the  fore- 
front of  art  and  literature  and  replete  with  the  glories  of  his- 
tory!  How  could  he  be  actuated  by  any  base  or  merely 
money-making  motives  ?  The  writer  of  these  lines  well  re- 
members how  in  philanthropic  circles  in  London,  a  quarter  of 
a  century  back,  any  such  suggestion  about  the  King  of  the 
Belgians  would  have  been  regarded  as  outrageous. 

So,  on  conditions  very  different  to  those  accorded  by  the 
world  at  large  to  Great  Britain,  France,  or  Germany,  or  by 
those  nations  to  some  company  of  chartered  merchant-adven- 
turers. King  Leopold  II  was  made  absolute  monarch  of  the 
Congo  basin.  He  was  practically  given  a  blank  cheque,  but 
without  the  least  idea  that  he  would  eventually  proceed  to  fill 


456   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


up  that  cheque  to  an  amount  of  several  millions  sterling  and 
pay  it  into  his  private  account. 

To  realize  the  injustice  of  the  present  position — the  cruel 
irony,  one  might  say,  of  the  situation — what  should  we  think  of 
King  Edward  VII,  if,  through  the  blood  and  bravery  of  his 
officers  and  soldiers,  the  zeal  of  his  explorers  which  only  death 
could  slacken,  the  conciliatory  propaganda  of  missionaries  of 
all  nationalities,  he  found  himself  sovereign-lord  over  Uganda 
and  East  Africa — forthwith  recognized  as  such  by  other 
Powers  :  and  that  having  achieved  this  position  he  should  pro- 
ceed to  carve  out  for  himself  an  estate  equal  to  one-seventh  of 
the  whole  British  dominions  in  East  Africa  ?  Putting  into  his 
own  pocket  (unaccounted  for  to  any  one  but  himself)  the  whole 
of  the  revenues  derived  from  the  whole  of  the  natural  products 
of  a  territory  richly  endowed  by  nature,  employing  Imperial 
troops  to  enforce  on  the  natives  of  this  Private  Estate  of  the 
Crown  a  degree  of  taxation  entirely  beyond  their  means,  a 
slavery  of  work  for  the  enrichment  of  himself  far  more  drastic 
than  the  Arab  or  the  native  slavery  which  had  been  one  of  the 
excuses  for  British  intervention  ?  Of  course  neither  would  the 
British  sovereign  conceive  nor  execute  such  a  monstrous  piece 
of  chicanery,  nor  would  the  British  nation  permit  such  an  act 
of  aberration.  What  would  the  rest  of  the  world  say  to  such 
an  idea  ? 

It  may  be  objected,  however,  that  King  Edward  does  not 
supply  out  of  his  own  pocket  the  funds  which  have  gone  to  the 
creation  of  the  British  Protectorates  over  Uganda  or  any  other 
part  of  tropical  Africa,  but  that  King  Leopold  did,  and  that 
therefore  in  finding  a  parallel  to  his  case  we  must,  as  it  were, 
discrown  him,  and  rank  him  with  a  Cecil  Rhodes,  a  Goldie,  or 
a  Mackinnon.  But  here  the  parallel  does  not  hold.  For 
Great  Britain  in  legitimizing  the  enterprises  of  these  mer- 
chant-adventurers took  care  (very  good  care  in  the  case  of  the 
Niger  and  of  East  and  South-Central  Africa)  to  safeguard 
native  rights.  The  rule  under  these  men  has  only  been  in 
fiction  the  rule  of  a  chartered  company.  The  British  Govern- 
ment has  really  considered  itself  responsible  for  the  actions  of 
these  delegates.  No  official  of  any  importance  working  under 
them  has  been  appointed,  except  on  the  recommendation  or 
sanction  of  the  British  Government.  Orders-in-Council,  Com- 
missioners, High  Commissioners,  Consuls,  or  Colonial  Governors 
have  shaped  the  laws  or  criticized  the  administration;  and  have 
actually  prepared  the  way  for  a  time  when  the  direct  administra- 
tion of  the  British  Crown  could  be  brought  into  force. 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  457 

Sooner  or  later  there  has  been  a  land  settlement  which 
has  effectually  safeguarded  the  present  and  future  rights  of  the 
real  natives  of  the  country.  Very  often  large  sums  of  money 
have  been  paid  to  native  chiefs  (great  and  small)  for  the  right 
to  assume  control  over  the  waste  lands  or  for  the  purchase 
of  any  sites  needed  by  Company  or  Government.  Where  the 
rigrht  of  the  native  chief  to  tax  has  been  abrogfated  he  has  in- 
stead  been  granted  a  handsome  revenue,  paid  directly  from  the 
coffers  of  the  British  Government  or  of  the  Chartered  Com- 
pany. Mos^  of  all,  this  principle  has  been  resolutely  enforced: 
that  all  revenue  collected  through  these  rights  and  privileges,  all 
taxation  imposed  on  the  natives,  directly  or  indirectly,  by  the  con- 
trolling Power,  has  been  publicly  audited  and  accounted  for. 

No  one  but  a  madman  could  say  that  the  public  revenues  of 
Uganda,  of  Nigeria,  of  Nyasaland  find  their  way  into  King 
Edward's  private  purse.  The  Chartered  Company  of  South 
Africa  still  remains,  but  it  is  pretty  well  known  to  a  penny  how 
the  revenue  it  collects  is  expended,  and  as  we  all  know,  such 
revenue  does  not  yet  meet  the  cost  of  expenditure  and  put 
a  profit  into  the  pockets  of  the  Company's  shareholders  who 
found  the  capital  to  start  this  enterprise. 

It  has  been  quite  otherwise  in  the  Congo  Free  State.  The 
territory  has  been  divided  up  into  a  State  preserve  or  into 
areas  entrusted  to  monopolist  companies,  in  some  or  all  of 
which  the  King,  as  Sovereign  of  the  State  or  as  private  specu- 
lator, has  a  small  or  a  great  proportion  of  the  profits.  Then 
there  is  the  Domaine  de  la  Couronne,  the  profits  from  which — 
said  to  be  three  millions  of  pounds — must  have  gone  far  to  re- 
pay King  Leopold  for  his  first  subsidies  employed  in  creating 
the  Congo  Free  State.  As  to  the  remainder,  it  is  still  State 
land,  but  not  the  land  of  a  constitutional  state,  the  actions  of 
which  are  governed  by  the  people's  will,  and  the  expenditure  of 
which  is  publicly  audited  and  controlled. 

Let  us  endeavour  to  expound  this  problem  :  without  the 
traditional  British  cant  and  hypocrisy.  We  need  not  strive  to 
postulate  an  Utopia  in  what  I  must  persist  in  calling  "the 
blood-soaked  basin  of  the  Congo."  Just  for  a  year  or  two  the 
world  did  think  that  Leopold  II  was  going  to  set  an  example, 
that  he  was  about  to  perform  an  act  of  stupendous  philanthropy 
by  introducing  a  genial  and  appropriate  civilization  into  Central 
Africa  at  his  own  expense,  by  creating  a  native  confederation  of 
chiefs  in  the  Congo  basin  which  might  end,  perhaps  conter- 
minously  with  the  King's  life,  in  bringing"  a  great  Liberia  into 
existence — a  Liberia  not  framed  on  the  impossible  models  of 


458   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


New  England,  but  on  the  lines  of  a  national,  original,  indigenous, 
and  reasonable  African  civilization. 

But  finding  that  the  King  was  after  all  no  more  than  the 
King  of  the  Belgians,  desirous  of  endowing  his  country  with  a 
colonial  domain  more  magnificent  than  that  of  Holland,  the 
world  need  only  have  shrugged  its  shoulders  if  he  had  followed 
the  example  of  Great  Britain  and  created  or  allowed  to  come 
into  existence  these  concessionnaire  companies  which  have 
done  so  much  for  the  initial  development  of  British  Africa  and 
British  Oceania,  Borneo,  and  India.  I  do  not  go  to  the  lengths 
of  some  theorists  in  Great  Britain  who  would  endow  the  actual 
natives  of  the  Congo  with  all  the  soil  of  the  Congo  and  all  its 
products.  I  do  not  think  the  territorial  rights  of  all  the  peoples 
on  the  Congo  worth  such  generous  consideration  as  that  of 
a  settled  European  peasantry.  Some  of  them  were  nomads  or 
semi-nomads.  Others  were  leading  a  life  little  superior  to  that 
of  the  wild  beasts  of  the  field.  Several  tribes  had  just  arrived 
on  the  scene  as  ferocious  conquerors,  with  no  more  legitimate 
rights  than  those  of  the  Kinor  of  the  Belgians. 

But  I  return  to  my  original  argument,  that  the  statesman- 
ship which  attended  the  inception  of  the  Congo  Free  State  was 
of  a  puerile  and  petty  description.  If  King  Leopold  had  had 
a  really  great  mind  or  had  followed  the  advice  of  a  wise 
counsellor,  he  would  have  commenced  and  patiently  carried  out 
a  land  settlement  on  the  lines  of  those  which  have  been  or  are 
being  brought  into  force  in  British  and  French  dominions  in 
tropical  Africa.  A  wise  discrimination  could  have  been  exer- 
cised between  tribe  and  tribe.  To  a  race  of  settled  agricul- 
turists almost  all  the  land  would  have  been  allotted  individually 
or  communally.  A  race  of  savages  would  have  been  invited  to 
settle  down  quietly  with  the  promise  of  an  eventual  survey  and 
allotment  of  lands. 

There  would  still  have  remained  vast  vacant  areas,  primeval 
forests,  uninhabited  savannas,  desolate  mountains  rich  in 
minerals.  All  this  ownerless  property  might  reasonably  have 
been  vested  in  the  Crown,  in  the  King-Sovereign,  but  only  to 
be  administered  as  a  public  trust  for  the  benefit  of  the  Congo 
Free  State  and  the  inhabitants  thereof.  It  would  have  been 
no  more  improper  for  the  King  to  have  allotted  this,  that,  and 
the  other  tract  to  a  concessionnaire  company  than  it  is  for 
Britain,  France,  Portugal,  and  other  nations  to  do  the  like 
(under  fair  conditions).  It  is  thus  that  capital  is  attracted  to 
new  lands,  if  its  investment  is  encouraged  by  privileges  and 
safeguards. 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  459 


In  the  allotment  of  these  lands  or  forests  or  mines,  how- 
ever, due  attention  should  have  been  paid  to  existing"  and 
reasonable  native  claims.  The  royalties  and  other  profits 
derived  by  the  Sovereign  from  the  bestowal  of  these  concessions 
should  have  been  put  into  the  pitblic  funds,  just  as  they  are  in  the 
case  of  Uganda  or  the  possessions  of  any  other  civilized  nation 
in  Africa.  The  scope  of  the  companies  should  have  been 
purely  commercial,  and  the  officials  and  police  of  the  State 
should  have  protected  the  natives  and  their  rights  and  happi- 
ness quite  as  much  as  the  property  and  employes  of  the 
concessionnaires. 

It  seems  to  me  inconceivable  that  any  reasonable  human 
being  at  the  present  day  could  find  any  defence  for  the  com- 
mercial policy  of  King  Leopold.  Having  regard  to  its  results 
and  to  the  promises  and  conditions  on  which  the  King  took  up 
his  task,  his  actions  in  this  respect  are  indefensible.  Judged  by 
his  professions  and  by  the  terms  on  which  he  was  allowed  to 
assume  the  guardianship  of  the  Congo  peoples  under  the  Act 
of  Berlin,^  the  KinCT-Sovereign  has  been  false  to  his  trust  when 
he  allowed  such  concessionnaire  companies  as  the  Societe 
Anversoise  and  the  A.  B.I.R.  to  exercise  uncontrolled  dominion 
over  large  areas  of  inhabited  country  where  the  European  had 
no  previous  or  inherited  rights.  The  lives  and  property  of 
thousands  of  natives,  who  if  they  had  wronged  one  another 
often  in  the  past  had  never  wronged  the  white  man,  were 
placed  absolutely  at  the  mercy  of  unscrupulous  Europeans,  who 
were  under  no  responsibility  but  that  of  making-  the  concession 
pay.  Such  intervention  as  the  State  supplied  was  nothing 
more  than  the  lendino-  of  officers  and  soldiers  to  enforce  the 
regulations  of  the  Company. 

Though  not  so  scandalously  bad  as  in  the  period  between 
1896  and  1902  (when  within  the  Concessions  area  in  the  north- 
central  and  northern  parts  of  the  Congo,  and  most  of  all  within 
the  Royal  Domaine,  the  misery  and  bloodshed  inflicted  on  the 
negroes  rivalled,  perhaps  exceeded,  that  which  took  place  else- 
where under  the  Arabs),  nevertheless  the  inherent  viciousness 
of  the  present  system  may  be  exemplified  by  the  following- 
instance.  Amongst  other  obligations  imposed  on  the  natives  of 
the  Congo  Free  State  is  that  of  labour  clue  to  the  State  in  lieu 
of  taxation.    Now  in  most  districts  of  the  Concjo  those  who 

'  The  Britisli  representative,  Sir  Edward  Malet,  in  announcing  the  adhesion  of 
Great  Britain  specially  alluded  to  the  rights  of  the  natives  and  the  British  recognition 
of  the  State  being  granted  on  the  assumption  that  the  native  rights  would  be  properly 
respected. 


46o   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


went  to  pay  their  taxes  to  the  State  as  labourers  were  drafted 
far  away  from  their  homes  to  undertake  public  works,  and  in 
many  cases  never  returned.  Either  they  were  badly  fed  and 
lodged,  or  through  promiscuity  with  other  negroes  contracted 
diseases  and  received  no  proper  medical  care  ;  or  they  were 
kidnapped  by  unscrupulous  chiefs,  waylaid  and  eaten  by 
cannibal  bandits,  or  met  with  other  mishaps.  At  any  rate,  the 
proportion  that  returned  to  their  homes  was  small.  No  doubt 
there  were  many  cases  in  which  with  the  negro's  insouciance 
they  lost  the  desire  to  return  (apart  from  the  fact  that  they  may 
have  realized  that  without  money  they  could  not  travel  several 
hundred  miles  on  a  steamer,  and  that  the  attempt  to  cover  that 
distance  on  foot  would  be  an  almost  impossible  task)  ;  and  so, 
when  their  period  of  State  service  was  over,  preferred  to  settle 


236.    LUMPS  OF  INDIA-RUBBER  AS  BROUGHT  IN  BV  NATIVES  OF  UPPER  CONGO 


down  where  they  could  find  an  occupation.  Anyhow,  in  the 
minds  of  those  that  remained  in  the  original  home  this  com- 
pulsory  work  for  the  State  was  synonymous  with  the  evils  of 
the  old  slave  trade,  for  the  persons  selected  for  this  work 
seldom  or  never  returned  to  their  homes. 

Then  the  agents  of  the  conccssionnaire  company  would 
come  forward,  and  would  say,  "We  will  pay  your  tax  to  the 
State  in  money,  but  in  return  you  must  pledge  yourselves  to  go 
into  the  bush  and  make  so  much  rubber."  The  natives  eagerly 
assented. 

Perhaps  the  first  year  they  were  only  required  to  work  in 
all  for  about  a  month  at  rubber-collecting,  on  to  which  all  hands 
were  turned — men,  women,  and  children.  But  the  second  year 
the  company  would  ask  for  more  labour  :  or  it  might  chance 
that  whereas  Monsieur  A.,  a  trading  agent  of  the  company, 
had  been  a  kind,  just  man  and  was  contented  with  the  result  of 
a  month's  work  for  the  rubber-collecting-,  Monsieur  B.  was 
greedy  for  a  larger  commission  and  wished  to  exhibit  a  larger 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  461 


output/  He  might  therefore  insist  on  the  people  working  in 
all  six  months,  eight  months,  at  the  rubber  business.  So 
this  tax  on  their  time  from  being  quite  a  reasonable  one  (in 
return  for  protection  and  other  conveniences  of  life)  grew,  in 
the  fierce  struggle  for  wealth  on  the  part  of  these  companies 
and  the  few  potentates  behind  them,  into  an  almost  ceaseless 
toil  for  the  benefit  of  the  white  man  ;  whilst  in  their  mad  desire 
to  save  themselves  from  transportation  or  the  other  (perhaps 
exaggerated)  horrors  they  associated  with  direct  service  of  the 
State,  the  people  have  been  destroying  the  forest,  destroying 
the  forest,  destroying  the  forest  to  get  the  rubber  demanded  ot 
them.  Their  fields  remain  untitled,  and  the  picture  is  one  too 
painful  to  dwell  on."  Of  course  all  this  time  bolder  spirits  were 
leaving  the  lands  directly  ruled  by  these  concessionnaire  com- 
panies and  flocking  to  the  standard  of  Kalambo,  the  King  of 
the  Bena-Lulua,  or  to  the  great  Sultans  or  Arabs  of  the  north 
and  north-east.  To  Zappo-Zap  they  do  not  go,  since  they 
would  be  either  killed  for  the  amusement  of  himself  and  his 
bloodthirsty  followers  or  sold  as  slaves. 

This  is  the  picture  drawn  by  Father  Vermeersch,  the  Baptist 
missionaries  (British  and  American),  the  Congo  Balolo  Mission, 
by  Swedish  missionaries,  and  by  members  of  the  American 
Presbyterian  Mission.  It  is  a  state  of  things  which  has  been 
confirmed  by  Consular  officials  of  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States.  It  is  indeed  an  ironical  contrast  to  the  flowery  declara- 
tions amid  which  the  Congo  State  was  born  into  the  comity  of 
nations. 

As  a  general  rule,  the  negro  is  lazy  and  has  made  a 
profitless  use  of  the  magnificent  continent  in  which  he  has  been 
evolved.  But  when  unspoilt,  he  is  willing  and  quick  to  learn, 
humble,  faithful,  and  imitative ;  an  apt  pupil,  separated  from  the 

^  Of  late  the  salaries  of  the  agents  of  one  very  large  concessionnaire  company 
have  been  reduced  to  between  forty  and  sixty  pounds  a  year  !  The  rest  of  the 
agents'  emoluments  must  be  earned  as  commission.  Consult  for  particulars  the 
Almanack  du  Congo,  igo4 :  published  at  Louvain  by  the  Pretres  du  Cosur  de  Jesus. 

^  Vice-Consul  G.  B.  Michell  writes  on  December  26th  1906,  in  a  despatch  to  the 
British  Government  (dealing  with  the  banks  of  the  northern  Congo):  — 

"  Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  natives  appeared  to  me  to  be  so  heavily  taxed  as  to  be 
depressed,  and  to  regard  themselves  as  practically  enslaved  by  '  Bula  Matadi.' 
The  incessant  call  for  rubber,  food,  and  labour  leaves  them  no  respite  nor  peace 
of  mind. 

"  On  the  whole,  the  impression  I  received  throughout  my  journey  was  that  of  a 
crisis.  I  do  not  mean  a  sense  of  danger,  but  a  general  expectation  of  some  change. 
In  every  post  the  State  agents  said  that  they  could  not  get  the  natives  to  yield  their 
proper  quota  of  taxation,  and  there  seems  to  be  a  nearly  universal  tendency  just  now 
to  think  that  the  collecting  of  rubber  is  to  be  stopped.  There  is  a  strong  dislike  to 
this  particular  form  of  imposition.  Unless  they  were  compelled,  either  physically  or 
morally,  I  am  convinced  that  not  an  ounce  would  be  made  in  the  country.  If  the 
compulsion  were  removed  there  would  be  universal  rejoicing." 


462   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 

influence  of  the  white  man  by  no  superstition,  prejudice,  pride 
of  caste,  or  religious  fanaticism.  What — one  asks  oneself  over 
and  over  again — what  might  not  Leopold  II  of  Belgium  have 
done  with  races  like  the  Baluba,  the  Bena-Lulua,  the  Bakuba, 
Bagenya,  Bangala  if  he  had  used  his  opportunities  aright,  if  he 
had  appliedj  the  results  of  the  conquests  of  his  officers — legiti- 
mate conquests  over  Arabs  and  cannibals — not  to  rack-renting 

the  country  for 
rubber,  or  allowing 
others  to  do  so  for 
the  rapid  enrich- 
ment of  Europeans 
who  had  never  seen 
the  Congo,  but  to 
the  patriarchial  en- 
lightenment,  the 
gradual  civilization 
of  some  of  the  finest 
negro  races — men- 
tally  as  well  as 
physically —  exist- 
ing in  Africa  at  the 
present  day  ?  For 
the  maintenance  of 
his  government  he 
need  have  created 
only  such  monopo- 
lies or  imposed 
such  taxation  as 
was  sufficient  to 
raise  funds  for 
public  works  and 

237.  ix.jAAiiJi,  A  riKKMAN  ON  B.M.s.s.  " ( .ooDwi LI. rtiaintenancc  of 

A  typical  Bangala  type.  pubKc  SeCUrltV. 

Nobody  expected 

him  to  exhaust  his  private  fortune  or  that  of  his  children  for 
pure  philanthropy ;  but  on  the  other  hand  it  certainly  never 
entered  the  minds  of  the  statesmen  who  pledged  their  respec- 
tive countries  to  the  creation  and  recognition  of  the  Congo 
Free  State  that  the  absolutely  despotic  power  placed  in  the 
hands  of  this  one  man  would  be  turned  to  such  base  purposes 
as  are  now  blazoned  over  the  whole  Congo  basin. 

Perhaps  the  bitterest  part  of  the  whole  thing  is  that  side  by 
side  with  this  misuse  of  the  King's  power  and  privileges  one 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  463 


connotes  a  heroism,  a  cheerful  endurance  of  privation  and 
disease,  an  honest  liking  for  these  feckless  savages  under  their 
control  on  the  part  of  so  many  Belgian  officials,  civil  and 
military,  men  often  serving  the  State  for  a  pittance  that  would 
scarcely  attract  the  most  junior  officer  in  the  British  Colonial 
Service. 

And  all  this  fine  work  on  the  part  of  Belgians — or  of 
British,^  Scandinavians,  Italians,  and  other  Europeans— from 
1880  to  1907  :  instead  of  resulting  in  a  monument  to  the  white 


238.  STATE  LANDING-STAGE  AT  BOMWANGA,  UPPER  CONGO,  Wl  l  H  STATE  SOLDIERS 
DRAWN  UP  IN  RANK  AS  GUARD  OK  HONOUR 


man's  courage,  nobility  of  purpose,  shrewd  common  sense,  and 
victory  over  the  Devil  of  reactionary  Nature — the  real  Devil 
that  manifests  himself  in  microbe  and  insect,  in  disease-germ, 
thunderstorm,  flood,  drought,  sunstroke,  wild  beast,  or  perverse 
human — has  left  us  after  twenty-seven  years'  work  a  Congo 
basin  known  to  its  innermost  recesses,  well  governed  on  its 
frontiers,  but  with  its  centre  devastated  by  disease  and  famine, 

'  It  must  not  be  forgotten — as  some  additional  defence  of  our  right  to  criticize — 
that  the  Congo  basin  was  mainly  discovered  by  Britons,  and  that  during  the  first  five 
years  which  went  to  the  creation  of  the  Congo  Free  State  80  Englishmen  (as  against 
81  Belgians)  served  King  Leopold  out  of  a  total  of  263  Europeans  employed  under 
Stanley. 


464   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


depopulated  by  punitory  expeditions,  partially  disforested,  and 
absolutely  closed  to  the  commerce  of  the  world  in  general. 

As  to  the  atrocities  and  other  misdeeds  with  which  the 
Belgians^  were  charged  :  the  atrocities  were  the  necessary  con- 
sequence of  the  trading  and  taxation  policy  adopted  by  the 
King-Sovereign.  To  carry  out  this  policy  he  recruited  a  large 
army  from  among  the  more  warlike  negro  tribes  of  northern 
and  eastern  Conoroland.  Now  no  one  is  or  has  been  so  cruel  to 
the  negro  as  the  negro.  Put  a  negro  into  a  uniform,  drill  him, 
give  him  lethal  weapons,  a  sufficient  salary,  food,  and  the  means 


239.    NATIVE  SOLDIER  GUARDING  WOMEN  HOslAGLb  IN  CHAINS 


of  maintainino-  a  wife,  etc.,  and  he  will  have  to  be  very  badlv 
used  before  he  turns  against  the  European  who  has  initiated 
him  into  this  glorious  life  of  power  and  authority.  Of  all  the 
races  of  mankind  perhaps  the  negro  is  the  most  inherently 
martial.  He  worships  power  in  all  its  manifestations.  It  may  be 
a  very  long  time  before  the  spread  of  ideas  unites  large  bodies 
of  negroes  against  the  Europeans  as  a  race,  that  is  to  say  in 
Africa.- 

^  Very  often  the  agents  of  the  coficessionttaire  companies  or  the  employes  of  the 
Domaine  de  la  Couronne  were  not  Belgians. 

-  Though  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  State  policy  in  parts  of  the  Congo  basin  has 
come  very  near  to  being  the  transcendent  element  which  is  to  fuse  all  internecine  strife 
among  negro  tribes  and  unite  them  with  a  universal  raging  hatred  against  the 
Europeans. 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  465 


These  native  soldiers  were  employed  as  "  sentries  "  (posies) 
to  police  subdued  districts  and  to  superintend  the  collection 
of  commercial  products  assessed  as  taxation  values,  or  to  collect 
labour  in  lieu  of  taxes.  These  men,  accustomed,  before  ever 
a  Belgian  or  Arab  set  foot  on  the  Congo  basin,  to  torture 
and  mutilate  men,  women,  and  children,  and  to  ravish  women, 
continued  these  practices  as  the  agents  of  a  far-off  white  Sove- 
reign who  had  undertaken  to  be  the  supreme  law-giver  and 
protector  of  thirty  millions^  of  unwitting  black  men.  They 
were  equally  the  agents  of  the  King  whether  they  served 
directly  under  his  commissioned  officers  or  under  the  concession- 
naire  companies  he  had  chartered.  King  Leopold  must  bear 
the  stigma  of  their  misdeeds.^ 

It  is  not  my  intention  in  this  book  to  repeat  the  work 
already  carried  out  so  effectively  by  Mr.  H.  R.  Fox- Bourne, 
Mr.  E.  D.  Morel,  by  British  Consular  officials,  by  King 
Leopold's  own  Commission  of  Inquiry,  by  the  evidence  of 
members  of  the  Congo  Balolo  Mission,  the  Baptist  Missionary 

^  Now  perhaps  only  twenty. 

-  In  my  desire  to  be  perfectly  fair  to  the  Belgian  administration,  I  should  like  to 
point  out  that — especially  of  late — the  system  of  establishing"  soldiers  as  ''sentries"  in 
village  communities  to  superintend  the  collection  of  taxes,  enforce  the  obligations  of 
military  service,  or  to  maintain  law  and  order  generally,  by  no  means  resulted  always 
in  "atrocities,"  misuse  of  power,  or  other  evils.  On  the  contrary,  recent  evidence 
especially  tends  to  show  that  in  some  districts  the  system  has  been  highly  beneficial. 
Here  is  a  heartening  extract  from  the  experiences  of  Mr.  H.  Sutton-Smith,  one 
of  the  Baptist  missionaries  on  the  Lualaba  section  of  the  Congo  abo\e  Stanley 
Falls  :— 

"Several  of  the  soldiers  stationed  at  different  villages  are  eager  to  learn,  and  to 
most  of  them  I  ga\  e  a  primer  m  the  hope  that  they  will  find  some  one  to  teach  them. 
On  Thursday,  August  9th,  I  called  at  the  village  of  Wayika,  near  Lokandu  (Riba 
Riba).  I  gave  the  soldier  a  primer  and  taught  him  the  vowel  signs,  also  a  copy-book, 
and  showed  him  how  to  write  them.    The  next  morning  I  had  to  pass  on. 

"  During  the  day,  on  nearing  Lokandu,  I  walked  through  the  c|uarters  of  a  number 
of  retired  soldiers,  mostly  young  men  who  had  served  fi\e  or  se\en  years.  There 
are  some  150  houses  on  the  north  side  of  Lokandu  occupied  by  them.  They  have 
settled  down  and  are  gathering  families  around  them.  One  and  another  turned  from 
his  occupation  to  salute  me  as  I  passed.  How  their  faces  beamed  when  I  noticed 
their  children.  They  followed  me  along  to  the  beach  where  the  canoe  was  waiting,  and 
asked  me  when  they  were  going  to  get  a  teacher.  They  said,  'We  had  no  chance 
when  we  were  soldiers  to  learn  to  read,  but  we  would  like  our  children  to  learn.' 
They  are  fine,  intelligent-looking  fellows,  and  doubtless  many  of  them  would  learn  to 
read  themselves. 

"I  returned  to  Wayika  on  Wednesday,  .August  15th.  I  found  that  the  soldier 
knew  his  vowels  and  could  write  them  well.  He  learnt  the  first  five  consonants 
in  a  lesson,  and  I  gave  him  a  writing  exercise  on  them.  The  next  morning,  as  I 
snatched  a  hurried  breakfast,  soon  after  6  a.m.,  he  came  to  me  and  showed  me 
that  he  knew  the  second  page  of  consonants  as  well.  We  had  heard  him  repeating 
them  over  and  over  to  himself  the  night  before,  after  learning  them  in  the  Icitchen 
from  one  of  the  boys. 

"Three  young  fellows  from  the  town  asked  for  primers,  and  when  I  asked  who 
would  teach  them,  they  replied  'The  soldier.'  They  pressed  me  to  tell  them  when  we 
would  come  to  teach  them  these  things  day  by  day,  and  I  could  give  them  no  reply 
except  to  say  that  our  work  took  all  our  time  at  Yakusu." 
I. — 2  H 


466   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Society,  and  the  American  Presbyterian  and  Baptist  Missions, 
besides  several  representatives  of  the  French  and  Belgian 
Roman  Catholic  Missions  in  the  Conoco  basin.^    I  could  add  to 

1  •  •  . 

the  testmionies  and  accusations  of  these  persons,  the  privately 
printed  evidence  of  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Weeks  [besides  his  pub- 
lished account  of  the  Yanjali  massacre  of  1 17  men,  women,  and 
children  in  1903],  and  a  good  many  pages  of  Grenfell's  own 
writing,  accusing  sentries  and,  worse  still,  the  white  agents  of 
concessionnaire  companies  (some  of  them  Belgian  officers)  of 
atrocious  cruelties  towards  natives  in  connection  with  the 
demands  first  for  ivory  and  then  for  rubber.  But  I  refrain  from 
giving  more  than  two  of  Grenfell's  instances,  from  a  series  ex- 
tending over  a  period  from  1894  to  1904."  If  those  who  are 

'  See  the  well-known  book  of  Father  A.  \'ermeersch,  S.J.,  La  Question  Congolaise. 
Charles  Balms,  Rue  Terra  Neuve,  Brussels. 

^  Rubber  Atrocities. — 5th  of  February  1899.  Mrs.  M.  Clark,  of  Ikoko,  tells  me 
that  within  a  few  minutes  of  their  station  four  people  were  killed  by  the  soldiers  on 
one  occasion  in  December  last,  amongst  them  a  child  of  two  years  or  so,  the  cause 
being  that  the  Ikoko  people  would  not  send  the  quota  of  workers.  Though  this  quota 
had  been  reduced  by  more  than  one  half  during  the  previous  few  months  (namely, 
from  eighty  to  thirty  for  certain  days  of  each  month),  the  men  did  not  like  to  work, 
and  so  sent  their  wives.  But  the  soldiers  took  the  wives,  and  the  men  did  not  like 
that,  though  somewhat  less  than  working  themselves.  The  soldiers  are  very  energetic 
in  getting  the  workers,  and  are  practically  uncontrolled.  And  the  worst  of  it  is  that 
in  some  cases  at  least  the  officers  are  afraid  to  punish  their  soldiers  for  these  things. 
'  If  you  kill  So-and-So  for  having  killed  Washenzi,  we  will  shoot  you'  is  reported  as 
the  open  threat  in  one  case  where  it  is  known  that  murder  went  unpunished  beyond  a 
day  or  two  in  the  chain.  This  shooting  is  particularly  sad,  a  large  proportion  of  the 
killed  being  women  and  children.  One  incident  in  this  Ikoko  episode  was  most  affect- 
ing. Mrs.  Clark  arriving  on  the  scene  saw  the  feet  of  a  child  just  showing  beneath  a 
canoe,  and  had  the  body  brought  out.  The  poor  mother  hugged  the  wet  body  in 
silence  to  her  breast,  but  till  she  was  well  away  from  the  soldiers  and  the  place  gave 
no  vent  to  her  grief  As  soon  as  she  got  within  sight  of  her  hut  she  gave  one  great 
shriek  and  shed  floods  of  tears.  The  cruelties  of  these  soldiers  I  feel  sure  are  very, 
very  terrible  in  the  places  beyond  the  range  of  the  missionaries'  ken,  and  if  within 
our  narrow  range  so  much  comes  to  view,  what  must  take  place  in  the  wide  expanse 
from  which  we  are  shut  out. 

"While  we  were  at  Bopoto  a  week  ago  a  Lisala  man  was  reported  as  having 
wounded  a  soldier,  whereupon  permission  was  given  to  the  soldiers  to  thrash  the 
people.  So  they  started  off  with  sticks  and  stones  and  emptied  the  village,  some 
taking  to  flight  in  the  bush,  others  in  the  river.  These  latter  were  kept  from  landing 
by  the  soldiers  keeping  up  a  storm  of  stones  till  the  swimmers  had  drifted  a  long  way 
from  the  \  illage.  -Mr.  Forfeitt  took  several  on  board  his  boat.  One  poor  old  woman, 
nearly  blind,  fought  frantically  as  she  was  being  pulled  on  board,  thinking  that 
enemies  had  hold  of  her  instead  of  friends." 

A  later  e.xtract  in  1899  : — 

"  On  passing  Iringi  this  voyage  I  took  a  copy  of  Lindeman's  protest  to  the 
Governor  concerning  Bomu  Njoko  (the  native  name  of  an  A.B.I.R.  agent)  and  the 
A.B.I.R.  having  killed  some  thirty  people,  of  whom  more  than  twenty  were  women 
and  children,  and  this  within  the  Congo  watershed  and  out  of  Lopori  range.  Also  a 
copy  of  a  protest  of  a  similar  character  where  soldiers  (and  a  white  man  this  time) 
had  killed  some  twenty,  with  guns  and  cartridges  furnished  by  a  white  man.  .  .  . 
Senga  of  Yakusu  went  with  a  complaint  to  Commandant  Malfeyt.  Mujoko  had  him 
seized  and  put  in  the  chain,  and  kept  him  therefor  a  week,  and  sent  him  back  without 
having  given  him  a  chance  of  seeing  the  Commandant.  Mujoko  wants  a  hundred 
shoka  (iron  spear-heads  used  as  cash),  is  refused  .  .  .  Two  or  three  people  tied  up, 
and  redeemed  by  one  hundred  shokas."    [Grenfell  then  goes  on  to  relate  that  Baron 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  467 

honestly  anxious  to  know  where  the  truth  lies  are  not  convinced 
by  all  the  evidence  above  cited  (not  forgetting  the  reports  of 
the  British  Consular  officials  from  1904  to  1907,  and  of  the 
King's  own  Com- 
mission of  Inquiry, 
also  the  terrible 
and  unanswered 
accusations  of  Bel- 
gian representa- 
tives in  the  Belgian 
Parliament),  they 
would  not  be  ad- 
ditionally con- 
vinced by  Gren- 
fell's  evidence  or  by 
that  of  members  of 
the  Baptist  Mission 
resident  on  the 
northern  Congo, 
whose  complaints 
are  of  as  late  a  date 
as  1907-8. 

Grenfell  was  so 
firm  a  believer 
down  to  1902  in 
the  philanthropic 
intentions  of  King- 
Leopold,  that  until 
that  period  he  was 
very  loth  to  join  in 
open  denunciation 
of  the  Congo  Free 
State  ;  but  he  re- 
cords  several 
stormy  interviews 
with  the  Governor- 
General  of  the 
Congo  between  1903  and  1906,  who  upbraided  him  in  harsh 
terms  for  his  soberly  worded  protests.  He  was,  it  is  true, 
made  by  King  Leopold  the   Secretary  of  a  committee  of 

Dhanis,  the  great  victor  over  the  Arabs,  is  much  hked  by  the  people,  and  that  they 
are  preparing  to  get  up  a  great  dance  in  his  honour  when  he  returns  from  his  war 
against  the  Arabs.  Grenfell  asks  why.  "Because  Mujoko  will  have  to  go,  he  is 
packing  up  already."]  This  Bomu  Njoko  or  Mujoko  seems  to  have  become  an 
intolerable  tyrant  and  pirate,  stopping  letters  and  destroying  them. 


240.  THE  "CHICOTE"  OR  WHIP  MADE  OF  TWISTED  HIPPO 

HIDE  WHICH  FIGURES  SO  MUCH  IN  CONGO  HISTORY 

It  is  not  unlike  the  kurbash  of  the  Sudan,  but  this  particular  form  of  whip 
and  its  name — chicote — was  invented  by  the  Portuguese  slave-traders  of 
the  eighteenth  century. 


468   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


missionaries  to  watch  over  and  protect  native  interests  ;  but  as 
the  Belgian  geographer,  A.  J.  Wauters,  and  Grenfell  himself 
have  both  pointed  out,  this  committee  was  a  farce. 

British  explorers  who  have  not  penetrated  the  large  area 
which  is  comprised  in  central  Congoland  under  the  name  of 
the  Domaine  de  la  Couronne,  or  who  have  not  penetrated 
into  the  lands  once  occupied  by  the  Societe  Anversoise,  the 
A.B.I.R.  Company,  or  the  Kasai  Company — and  no  British 
explorer  [with  the  exception  of  Lord  ^lountmorres  and  the 
missionaries  and  consuls]  has  ever  been  into  these  regions 
— have  come  back  speaking  in  terms  of  the  highest  praise 
of  the  Belgian  treatment  of  the  natires,  and  of  the  civiliza- 
tion  introduced  and  maintained  by  the  Congo  State.  Their 
opinions  may  be — like  my  own  have  been  in  times  past — un- 
consciously biassed  by  the  generous  hospitality  which  every 
Beloian  shows  the  stranoer  who  comes  to  his  orates.     But  still 

o  o  o 

in  the  main  they  wrote  or  spoke  the  truth,  and  it  was  naturally 
a  puzzle  to  impartial  onlookers  to  reconcile  the  stories  of  the 
missionaries  and  of  certain  Belgian  politicians  with  the  ac- 
counts given  by  Colonel  Harrison,  Major  Powell  Cotton,  Mr. 
Savage  Landor,  and  Captain  Boyd  Alexander. 

A  little  attention  to  Congo  geography  will  clear  away  this 
discrepancy  in  a  moment.  Not  one  of  these  travellers  (in- 
cluding the  present  writer)  has  ever  visited  the  regions 
where  the  misdeeds  of  the  native  and  European  agents  of 
the  Companies  or  Domains  took  place.  They  have  skirted 
the  Mubangi  territories  or  those  of  the  Ituri  and  Semliki, 
or  possibly  in  one  or  other  case  have  descended  the  main 
Congo  on  a  steamer,  scarcely  ever  stopping  for  any  time  at 
a  native  village.  They  were,  no  doubt,  quite  right  (as  I  was 
in  1900)  in  saying  that  they  could  see  nothing  but  good  in  the 
work  of  the  Belgians  on  the  Congo.  Equally  true  neverthe- 
less is  the  evidence  of  the  woes  inflicted  by  the  present  regime, 
which  has  been  collected  and  sifted  by  Morel,  by  Vandervelde, 
Daens,  Lorand,  Bertrand,  Felicien  Cattier,  Father  A.  \^er- 
meersch,  and  S.  Lefranc,  or  obtained  by  the  British  Consular 
officials  Pickersgill,  Casement,  Nightingale,  Michell,  and  Arm- 
strong, by  Lord  Mountmorres,  and  by  fifty-two  missionaries, 
including  English,  Americans,  Canadians,  Germans,  Danes, 
Swedes,  and  Norwegians.  There  should  also  be  added  the 
testimony  of  Italian  officers  or  officials  who  have  served  the 
Congo  Free  State  and  have  protested  against  its  procedure.^ 

'  Any  reader  of  this  book  who  is  aware  of  the  insidious  influence  of  British 
Imperiahsm,  and  dreads  to  condemn  any  African  Government  from  the  denuncia- 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  471 


A  Pfood  deal  has  been  alleoed  aoainst  the  Cono-o  State 
on  the  score  of  Slavery.  Some  of  the  critics  have  been  ani- 
mated by  counsels  of  perfection.  It  was  expected  during  the 
first  ten  \  ears  of  the  State's  existence — let  us  say  from  1880  to 
1890 — that  its  officers  would  almost  immediately  produce  out  of 
chaos,  utter  disorder,  and  a  condition  of  internecine  war  amongst 
twenty  or  thirty  millions  of  savages  a  state  of  perfect  peace, 
free  from  any  blemish,  and,  above  all,  innocent  of  the  selling 
and  buying  of  human  beings. 

This  with  the  means  at  the  conmiand  of  the  organization 
was  an  obvious  impossibility.  It  was  all  very  well  for  the 
State  official  or  the  missionary  to  say,  "  I  won't  encourage 
slavery  by  redeeming  a  fugitive  or  a  person  sentenced  to 
death  for  witchcraft."  But  the  humane  temptation  to  do  so 
was  sometimes  irresistible.  So  in  a  sense  slaves  were  bouoht, 
and  being  grateful  to  their  purchasers  remained  as  servants. 
Gradually  the  system  grew  on  even  the  best  of  the  State 
officers.  They  frequently  paid  sums  in  trade  goods  to  Arabs 
and  Arabized  native  chiefs,  in  return  for  which  they  received 
numbers  of  war  captives,  who  became  the  soldiers,  hibourers, 
porters,  and  servants  of  the  State.  I  cannot  anywhere  find  a 
record  of  these  men  being-  resold  aoain  ;  but  on  the  other 
hand  there  is  plenty  of  evidence  to  show  that  with  most  of 
the  officers  of  the  State  the  persons  thus  purchased  after 
serving  a  reasonable  time  (perhaps  with  a  small  wage)  were 
allowed  to  settle  down  in  some  agricultural  colony  and  practi- 
cally regained  their  liberty  of  action.  These  are  the  people 
so  often  referred  to  in  the  records  of  ten  and  twenty  years  ago 
as  libdr(!s. 

But  a  system  which  has  led  to  a  great  deal  of  harm  was 
due  to  a  law  or  decree  passed  in  regard  to  "orphans." 
Apparently  the  officials  of  the  State  were  authorized  by  this 
law  to  lay  hold  of  any  children  without  visible  father  or 
mother  and  hand  them  over  to  the  care  of  Belgian  religious 
missions.  Here  they  were  to  be  brought  up  and  educated  by 
the  fathers  or  sisters.  As  a  matter  of  fact  this  often  led  to 
the  original  purpose  of  these  Christian  missions  being  alto- 
gether abused  and  their  resources  strained.   And  one  can  easily 

tions  of  his  fellow-countrymen  alone,  might  well  confine  himself  to  judging  of  the 
maltreatment  of  the  natives  under  the  Leopoldian  regime  by  the  exposures  of  this 
maltreatment  published  in  Belgium.  He  may  even  narrow  down  his  attention  to  the 
verbatim  report  of  the  Five  Days'  Debate  on  Congo  matters  in  the  Belgian  House  of 
Representatives  during  February  and  March  1906,  and  the  series  of  letters  (1908)  in 
the  Belgian  paper  Le  Patriate  from  the  pen  of  a  magistrate,  Mons.  S.  Lefranc,  until 
recently  a  Judge  of  the  First  Instance  on  the  Congo. 


472   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


conceive  mission  stations  that  submitted  to  the  control  or 
patronage  of  the  Congo  State  being  turned  ev^entually  into  mere 
labour-rearing  estabHshments,  vast  factories  of  servile  labour. 

It  has  been  frequently  pointed  out  (by  Belgians  quite  as 
much  as  by  other  Europeans)  that  in  most  native  communities 
if  a  child  loses  its  father  and  mother  it  is  sufficiently  looked 
after  by  its  uncles  and  aunts.  Grenfell  is  particularly  sarcastic 
in  some  of  his  entries  resfardinor  the  utterances  of  a  certain 
Congo  Secretary  of  State,  who  described  the  greater  part  of 


242.  CIRI.  PUPILS  AT  THE  BAPTIST  MISSION,  VAKUSU,  NORTHERN  CONGO 


the  Congo  natives  as  "beyond  the  pale  of  the  family  idea." 
He  was  rightly  sarcastic,  because  no  race  or  tribe  yet  met  with 
on  the  Congo — not  even  the  Pygmies — can  be  thus  described. 
Family  ties  are  very  strong  amongst  negroes.  Aunts  and 
uncles  are  not  infrequently  called  by  the  same  term  as  mother 
and  father.  With  most  of  these  negro  peoples  there  is  in 
addition  the  o-odfather  and  oodmother  institution  :  that  is  to 
say,  soon  after  birth  a  man  or  woman  (according  to  the  sex  of 
the  child)  is  chosen  as  an  almost  exact  equivalent  to  the  god- 
father and  godmother  of  Christian  lands — a  kindly  guardian 
who  will  give  an  eye  to  the  child's  upbringing  and  training, 
especially  in  the  case  of  the  death  of  its  parents. 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  473 


This  passion  for  snatching"  orphans  and  turning  them  into 
little  serfs  has  done  a  great  deal  to  break  up  family  life  in  the 
regions  of  the  State  which  are  under  control. 

Another  such  idea,  which  though  well  intentioned  was  fan- 
tastic and  unworkable,  emanated  apparently  from  Brussels.  It 
went  forth  some  twenty  years  ago  that  a  great  deal  of  care  was 
to  be  taken  of  married  women  amongst  the  natives  :  they  were 
not  to  be  allowed  to  work.  All  this  time  the  State  went  on 
founding  its  agricultural  colonies,  partly  with  a  view  to  raising 
a  food  supply,  and  partly  to  make  use  of  the  libdr^s,  who  were 
slaves  forcibly  released  or  else  ransomed  from  Arab  raiders  or 
native  chiefs,  or  prisoners  of  war.  In  these  colonies  it  was 
arbitrarily  determined  that  there  should  be  unmarried  women 
on  one  side  (as  it  were)  and  men  living  in  a  state  of  celibacy  on 
the  other.  The  young  women  being  required  to  work  could  not 
be  allowed  to  marry,  or  by  the  law  of  the  State  they  must  then 
become  useless  members  of  the  community.  Naturally  this 
extraordinary  idea  led  to  the  grossest  immorality.  Either  the 
men,  forced  to  live  in  a  community  by  themselves  without 
womenkind,  fell  into  practices  attributed  to  the  Chinese  on  the 
Rand,  or — the  negro  being  nearly  always  absolutely  averse  to 
such  tendencies — there  was  an  illicit  intercourse  between  the 
men  workers  and  the  women  workers  which  led  to  a  very  dis- 
gusting state  of  affairs  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  allude  to 
further,  since  after  strong  representations  from  Grenfell  and 
other  missionaries — Catholic  and  Protestant  alike — the  law 
about  married  women  not  beings  allowed  to  work,  and  conse- 
quently  State  workers  not  being  allowed  to  marry,  fell  into 
desuetude. 

By  the  time  this  book  is  published  it  is  possible  that 
Belgium  will  have  come  to  terms  with  the  Kino--Sovereio-n 
over  the  Congo  Free  State,  and  that  these  terms,  of  necessity, 
will  be  such  as  cannot  be  objected  to  by  the  Powers  who  are 
signatories  of  the  Act  of  Berlin.  If  this  has  been  the  outcome 
of  the  agitation  against  the  Leopoldian  regime  started  in 
England,  we  shall  all  of  us  be  only  too  happy  to  let  bygones 
be  bygones,  and  as  the  dead  cannot  be  called  back  to  life, 
dwell  no  more  than  we  can  help  on  the  mistakes  which  the 
Government  of  the  Independent  Congo  State  has  made.  As 
regards  its  errors  of  judgment  between  1880  and  1890,  many 
of  them  were  committed  with  the  best  intentions,  though  they 
arose  from  the  foolish  attempt  to  govern  a  vast  dominion  in 
Africa  more  or  less  directly  from  Brussels,  and  to  do  it  through 


474   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


persons  quite  unacquainted  with  Africa.  As  regards  the  King's 
policy  between  1892  and  the  present  day,  I  doubt  if  the  Muse 
of  History  when  she  can  take  a  calm  survey  of  these  proceed- 
ings a  hundred  years  hence  will  be  able  to  acquit  him  of  blame. 
He  may  have  been  deceived  by  his  ministers  and  representa- 
tives down  to  1902.  Since  then  one  can  only  imagine  that  he 
has  deliberately  shut  eyes  and  ears  to  the  truth. 

But  if  Beloium  has  awaked  to  a  sense  of  righteousness 
and  has  compelled  King  Leopold  to  give  up  the  charge  that 
he  has  abused,  has  stepped  into  the  breach  herself  as  a  proud 


243.  MATADI,  FROM  THE  BAPTIST  MISSION  STATION',  NEW  UNDERHILL 


nation  resolved  to  have  no  stain  on  her  honour,  even  if  to 
maintain  that  honour  she  must  make  pecuniary  sacrifices;  then 
let  us  try  to  remember  not  the  misdeeds  and  mistakes  of  the 
Conofo  State,  but  such  excellent  work  as  we  know  has  been 
done  in  railway  construction,  in  agricultural  developments,  in 
the  establishment  of  law  and  order  over  the  western,  northern, 
and  eastern  regions,  and  last  but  not  least,  in  the  notable  con- 
tributions that  have  been  made  to  our  scientific  knowledge  of 
Central  Africa. 

To  some  extent  the  drama  of  Africa  has  been  worked 
out  in  the  object-lesson  of  the  Congo  Free  State.  Here  we 
have  seen  the  last  phase  of  that  type  of  "  colonies "  which 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  475 


began  with  the  Spanish  conquest  of  America,  and  was  not 
absent  from  the  middle  -  eighteenth  -  century  proceedings  of 
the  British  in  India  or  from  Bonaparte's  conquest  of  Egypt. 
There  have  been  distinct  attempts  on  the  part  of  British 
pioneers  to  imitate  this  proceckire  towards  the  natives  in  East 
and  South-Central  Africa  and  elsewhere.  France  has  allowed 
concessionnaire  companies  to  do  things  quite  as  bad  as  those 
attributed  to  the  Leopoldian  regime  in  the  hinterland  of  the 
French  Congo  and  Gaboon.  Charges  of  the  same  kind 
have  been  levelled  against  the  Portuguese  in  the  far  interior 
of  Angola,  and  it  was  actions  of  this  type  that  provoked  the 
first  rising  against  the  Germans  in  East  Africa  in  1888  and 
1889.  Our  American  cousins  were  at  one  time  accused  of 
deeds  not  altogether  dissimilar  in  the  Philippines,  and  the 
Dutch  likewise  in  Celebes  and  Sumatra. 

King  Leopold  has  allowed  the  wrong-doing  to  be  com- 
mitted over  such  a  considerable  extent  of  country  and  on  so 
large  a  scale  as  to  attract  perhaps  more  public  attention  than 
has  been  bestowed  by  the  Press  on  other  forms  of  colonial 
misgovernment  under  other  flags.  Let  this  one  object-lesson 
suffice  for  all  time  for  the  Caucasian.  The  backward  races 
we  set  out  to  educate  need  for  a  greater  or  less  number  of 
years  to  come  under  our  supervision  and  control,  or — as  has 
often  happened  in  times  past — they  will  simply  exterminate 
one  another  :  at  any  rate  lead  a  life  which  is  uselessly  savage, 
is  short,  and  more  often  unhappy  than  otherwise.  But  we 
are  there  to  educate  and  not  to  exploit.  Our  wrong-doing 
not  only  enrages  the  savage  [if  it  does  not  exterminate  him], 
but  it  degrades  the  morale  of  the  Caucasian.  Spain  has  been 
crippled  for  two  centuries  at  least  as  a  punishment  for  her 
misdeeds  in  Central  America.  Thanks  to  Exeter  Hall  and 
the  Exeter  Hall  spirit.  Great  Britain  has  strayed  less  fre- 
quently from  the  right  path.  For  Belgium  I  believe  a  great 
administrative  career  is  opening  in  Africa  if  she  will  only 
study  the  past  colonial  history  of  Spain,  France,  Britain,  Ger- 
many, and  Portugal,  and  that  of  the  International  Independent 
State  of  the  Congo,  and  note  what  she  should  avoid,  what  she 
may  imitate,  and  above  all  what  good  measures  she  may 
originate  on  her  own  account. 


476   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


APPENDIX  I 

CONCESSIONNAIRE  COMPANIES  IX  THE  BASIN 
OF  THE  CONGO 

There  are  apparently  five  kindred  companies  branching  out  from  the 
original  Anglo-Belgian  Indiarubber  Company.  These  are  :  (i)  the  Abh- 
(not  yet  altogether  incorporated  in  the  Domaine  National),  whose 
territory  lies  to  the  south  of  the  northern  bend  of  the  Congo  in  the  basin 
of  the  Maringa  and  Lopori  affluents  of  the  Lulongo  ;  (2)  the  Societe 
Coinincrcialc  Anversoise  (now  reincorporated  in  the  State  domain)  along 
the  northern  bank  of  the  Congo,  and  thence  north  to  the  Mubangi  water- 
shed, practically  in  the  basin  of  the  River  Mongala  ;  (3)  the  Coniptoir 
Commercial  Congolais,  in  the  valley  of  the  Wamba,  an  affluent  of  the 
Kwango  ;  (4)  the  Compagnie  du  Kasai,  extending  over  nearly  the  whole 
of  the  Congolese  basin  of  the  Kasai  and  its  affluents  (Sankuru,  Lulua, 
etc.);  (5)  the  Societe  des  Chcmins  de  fe}-  des  Grands  Lacs,  which  has 
been  granted  a  belt  of  country  extending  from  the  right  bank  of  the 
Lualaba-Congo  in  the  region  of  the  Stanley  Falls,  eastwards  to  the 
Semliki  River  and  the  vicinity  of  Lake  Albert. 

Of  (4)  and  (5)  the  Congo  State,  i.e.  the  King -Sovereign,  holds 
half  the  capital. 

(6)  The  Union  Minicre  du  Haut  Katanga.  This  includes  all  the 
Katanga  country  bordering  on  Rhodesia,  and  as  far  north  as  the  con- 
fluence of  the  Lufira  with  the  Lualaba. 

(7)  The  American  Cottgo  Company,  to  which  has  been  ceded  the 
territories  along  the  left  or  east  bank  of  the  Congo  between  Stanley 
Pool  and  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Alima,  and  also  nearly  as  far 
inland  as  the  Kwango. 

(8)  Then  there  is  the  Societe  Internationale  Forestiere  et  Miniere, 
whose  somewhat  vague  concession  extends  from  north-west  to  south- 
east along  the  valley  of  the  Busira  and  Chuapa  across  the  Lomami  and 
Lualaba  to  Tanganyika. 

(9)  The  Compagnie  du  Katanga  is  a  large  concession,  between  the 
upper  Lualaba  and  Lufira  rivers  on  the  south  and  the  fifth  degree  of 
S.  Latitude  on  the  north,  bordered  on  the  east  by  Tanganyika  and  on 
the  west  by  the  basin  of  the  Kasai. 

(10)  There  is  the  Compagtiie  du  Lomami,  to  which  has  been  con- 
ceded the  long  stretch  of  the  Lomami  Valley  from  its  junction  with 
the  Kwango  up-stream  to  the  third  degree  of  S.  Latitude.  This  or 
a  similar  Company  has  a  small  additional  concession  on  the  upper 
Busira  River. 

(11)  A  large  mineral  concession  has  been  ceded  to  the  Raihvay 
Company  of  the  Lower  Congo  in  the  region  of  the  Kasai  and  of  Lake 
Leopold  and  the  Lukenye  River. 


478   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


Finally,  there  is  (12)  the  Domaine  or  Fojtdation  de  la  Couronne, 
which  is  practically  the  private  estate  of  the  King  of  the  Belgians  in 
Congoland.  This  is  a  considerable  tract,  bounded  somewhat  vaguely 
on  the  west,  north,  and  east  by  the  basin  of  the  main  Congo,  the 
Equator,  and  the  basin  of  the  Lomami,  and  on  the  south  by  the  line 
of  water-parting  between  the  basin  of  the  Kasai-Sankuru  and  that  of 
the  Mfini  and  Lukenye. 

Companies  9,  10,  and  12  are  proprietary.  Companies  i  to  8  and 
No.  12  hold  special  concessions  for  rubber,  ivory,  or  minerals. 

The  remainder  of  Congo  territory — about  one-half — is  described 
as  Domaine  National,  or  (by  King  Leopold)  as  Doiiiaijie  de  VEtat. 

As  regards  the  notorious  Abir  Company,  although  it  has  been 
repeatedly  stated  that  it  has  been  reabsorbed  in  the  Congo  State,  it 
still  (according  to  British  Consular  officials appears  to  retain  separate 
administrative  functions. 

The  following  notes  on  the  Societe  Anvcrsoise  and  Major  Lothaire's 
connection  with  this  Concessionnaire  Company  have  been  forwarded  to 
me  by  a  well-known  Congo  explorer : — 

"The  Societe  Anversoise  dn  Commerce  du  Congo  was  in  the  beginning 
administered  by  agents  of  the  State.  There  was  then  not  the  slightest  trouble 
with  the  natives.  Of  course  the  financial  result  was  less  favourable  than  later, 
but  this  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  Lower  Congo  railway  was  not  finished,  and 
the  transport  of  the  goods  to  and  from  the  coast  was  very  expensive.  Later 
on  the  Company  began  to  administer  its  territory  by  its  own  agents,  and  as 
cheapness  of  labour  was  its  chief  aim,  all  people  who  had  been  refused  by 
other  companies,  or  who  had  been  dismissed  by  them  for  bad  behaviour,  found 
employment  in  the  S.A.C.C.  As  a  rule  twelve  to  fifteen  hundred  francs 
(^48  to  ;^"6o)  was  the  salary  paid,  and  it  can  be  well  imagined  that  people 
who  went  to  the  Congo  for  such  a  slight  compensation  were  not  worth  more. 
They  had,  of  course,  to  make  their  profit  out  of  commissions.  The  really  bad 
period  began  when  Lothaire  was  made  Director-General.  Each  factory  in  the 
Congo  had  permission  to  keep  for  its  own  defence  twenty-five  Albini  rifles ; 
and  Lothaire  established  a  great  number  of  so-called  factories,  for  each  of 
which  he  imported  the  maximum  number  of  rifles  permitted.  He  divided  the 
country  into  different  provinces,  and  made  the  most  important  chief  of  each 
suzerain  over  the  others  and  trusted  him  with  the  gathering  of  the  rubber.  To 
help  him  in  this  work  a  large  number  of  rifles,  probably  above  a  thousand, 
were  given  to  him  to  help  in  the  collecting  of  rubber ;  and  it  may  be  imagined, 
as  ammunition  was  offered  too  freely  to  the  chiefs,  what  use  was  made  of  their 
rifles.  When  later  some  of  these  chiefs,  dissatisfied  by  the  treatment  they 
received  at  the  hands  of  the  Company,  turned  against  it,  they  were  so  well 
armed  and  so  well  provided  with  ammunition  that  it  was  impossible  to  bring 
them  to  submission.  The  greater  part  of  the  concession  of  the  S.A.C.C.  was 
situated  in  the  country  inhabited  by  the  Buja,  a  warhke  forest  tribe  which  is 
certainly  the  boldest  in  the  whole  Congo  basin.  The  Buja  hunt  the  elephant 
with  spears  and  arrows,  and  when  attacked  by  State  forces  it  would  occur  that 
in  the  middle  of  the  most  violent  firing,  and  though  scores  of  them  were  shot, 
they  walked  up  to  the  troops  and  tore  the  rifles  out  of  their  hands.  When 
Lothaire,  after  having  done  all  this  mischief,  returned  to  Europe,  the  Company 
was  obliged  to  ask  the  State  to  come  and  help  to  put  down  the  different 

'  Africa  No.  i  {April  igoy).  Correspondence  respeciitig  the  Independent  Utate  of 
the  Congo. 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  479 


rebellious  tribes  and  to  obtain  the  restitution  of  their  rifles.  This  was  easier 
asked  than  done,  for  whenever  the  State  troops  came  in  force,  they  found 
nobody  to  fight,  as  it  is  easy  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  forest  to  hide  and  avoid 
them ;  it  was  only  small  parties  that  were  attacked  and  destroyed.  Many 
officials  have  lost  their  lives  in  this  region. 

"The  proceedings  of  Major  Lothaire  having  been  found  out,  it  was  stated 
that  if  he  ever  again  put  his  foot  on  Congolese  soil  he  would  be  arrested. 
Now  whatever  Lothaire  may  be,  he  certainly  is  a  dare-devil,  and  when  one  day 
in  Belgium  some  of  his  comrades  mentioned  to  him  that  it  would  be  impossible 
for  him  to  return  to  the  Congo,  and  challenged  him  to  do  so,  he  made  a  bet 
that  he  would  do  it,  and,  in  fact,  embarked  a  few  weeks  later  for  Boma.  It 


244.  THK  LUM  .11 


.  I  A'l  K  I'OVI  ol'  Dl'MIiA,  MiKllll.KN  LOM.U,  AT  THE 
EDGE  OF  THE  BUJA  TERRITORY 


may  be  imagined  what  astonishment  his  appearance  created  there,  and  the 
Procurator-General,  M.  Waleffe,  instantly  applied  to  the  Governor-General  for 
permission  to  arrest  him.  .  .  .  When  Lothaire  had  been  arrested,  he  asked  for 
bail,  engaging  his  word  of  honour  '  as  an  officer '  to  appear  whenever  required. 
Under  great  pressure  the  Procurator-General  granted  this,  and  Lothaire  took 
the  first  opportunity  to  leave  the  Congo  on  a  steamer  proceeding  to  St.  Paul 
de  Loanda,  from  whence  he  returned  to  Europe  on  a  Portuguese  steamer. 
\Vhen  asked  whether  he  did  not  attach  more  value  to  his  word  of  honour,  he 
is  said  to  have  replied  that  he  only  gave  his  word  of  honour  as  an  officer,  and 
that  at  that  time  he  had  left  the  army  for  several  years. 

"  Now  the  administration  of  the  Company  has  been  taken  over  by  the 
State,  but  it  will  be  years  before  the  old  order  can  be  restored." 

The  same  correspondent,  not  an  Englishman,  comments  on  the 
contradictory  traits  of   Lothaire's   nature.    His  remarks  find  some 


48o   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


corroboration  in  Grenfell's  journals.  According  to  my  correspondent, 
Lothaire  was  the  kindest  comrade,  tenderest  nurse  of  brother  officers  : 
brave  to  recklessness,  ready  to  risk  his  life  for  others  again  and  again, 
a  man  who  would  devote  all  his  spare  time  to  those  who  were  sick  or 
wounded,  yet  who  could  be  pitiless  and  cruel  towards  the  natives.  He 
was,  of  course,  denounced  by  every  British  newspaper  of  importance, 
not  only  for  his  putting  Stokes  to  death,  but  for  his  ruthless  administra- 
tion of  the  S.A.C.C.  territory  in  northern  Congoland.  Yet  he  was  so 
great  an  admirer  of  England,  that  during  the  Boer  War  he  challenged 
a  brother  officer  in  a  Brussels  cafe  to  fight  him  in  a  duel  or  withdraw 
the  offensive  remarks  he  had  made  about  England  and  Englishmen. 


APPENDIX  II 

EXTRACTS  FROM  A  PRIVATE  LETTER  WRITTEN 
BY  GRENFELL,  DECEMBER  29TH  1902 

"  I  PROMISED  to  write  to  you  in  regard  to  Congo  affairs.  ...  I  have  been 
greatly  perplexed,  as  you  can  well  imagine,  at  the  disparity  in  so  many  cases 
between  the  results  of  the  Congo  State  administration  and  the  high  and  bene- 
ficent purposes  of  the  Central  Authority.  For,  while  I  thank  God  for  the 
introduction  of  law  and  order  and  for  the  protection  of  life  and  property 
over  wide  areas  where  in  early  days  I  was  daily  in  contact  with  a  state  of  law- 
lessness and  misery  that  makes  my  old  diaries  blood  curdling  and  horrible, 
yet  I  cannot  help  being  grieved  at  the  hardships  endured  by  the  people  in  dis- 
tricts removed  from  the  surveillance  of  the  authorities.  I  wish  most  fervently 
for  serious  reform.  The  operations  of  which  I  complain  are  found  in  the  collec- 
tion of  taxes  in  kind  and  in  the  form  of  labour.  If  the  taxes  bore  equally  all 
round,  and  if  labour  was  equally  shared  by  all  the  people,  the  hardship  would 
scarcely  be  felt.  But  the  Administration  is  so  scattered  that  it  is  only  effective 
in  detail  at  places,  and  at  those  places  where  a  white  man  backed  by  twenty  or 
thirty  soldiers  occupies  a  post  to  himself  fifty  or  a  hundred  miles  from  any  other 
white  man,  and  has  to  garrison  five  thousand  square  miles  of  territory,  the 
pressure  is  often  localized  to  a  severe  if  not  to  a  dangerous  degree.  An  official 
does  not  do  the  collecting  himself.  His  soldiers  do  it,  and  their  aim  is  to  get 
the  levies  in  quickly  rather  than  to  distribute  them  fairly.  It  was  the  difficulty 
of  controlling  the  collection  of  the  taxes  in  the  Equatorial  Sudan  that  so  vexed 
poor  Gordon's  righteous  soul.  It  is  the  same  that  Lugard  complains  of  on  the 
Niger,  and  it  is  the  same  difficulty  which  I  have  to  record  on  the  Congo.  Here, 
a  staff  of  some  fifteen  hundred  Europeans  has  to  fill  the  various  branches  of 
the  Administration,  including  railway  and  steamboat  services,  and  control  some 
seven  thousand  native  troops.  The  fifteen  hundred  must  do  everything  that  has 
to  be  done  in  a  territory  nearly  a  third  the  size  of  Europe.  This  involves  a  lot 
of  rough-and-ready  work,  much  slackness  at  many  points,  and  stress  at  not  a  few. 

"  If  the  Code  Congolais  could  only  be  universally  applied,  and  a  regulation 
per  capita  tax  enforced,  even  though  it  involved  as  much  as  a  month's  rubber 
collecting  or  other  strenuous  effort,  the  country  would  soon  emerge  into  an  ideal 
condition  compared  with  the  present,  and  the  discontent  that  is  very  evident  in 
places  would  be  very  largely  dissipated,  though  it  is  not  to  be  expected,  human 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  481 


nature  being  what  it  is,  that  the  people  would  take  pleasure  in  tax-paying.  It  is 
the  i/icessant  and  varying  requirements  from  the  people  oti  the  part  of  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  Government  that  constitute  in  my  opinion  a  grave  danger  for  the 
future  of  the  State.  I  could  enforce  the  opinion  by  detailed  incidents,  but  as 
these  have  come  to  my  notice  while  I  have  been  the  guest  of  Government 
officials  at  various  points,  I  cannot  very  well  do  so.  Please  do  not  for  a 
moment  think  I  am  referring  to  atrocities  or  anything  of  the  kind.  I  have  just 
returned  from  a  journey  of  some  four  hundred  miles  along  the  Aruwimi  valley, 
and  I  have  not  seen  or  so  much  as  heard  of  anything  like  corporal  punishment 
being  inflicted,  though  here  and  there  I  saw  persons  in  chains,  and  here  and 
there  I  saw  soldiers  striking  natives  (I  must  confess  the  provocation  was  very 
great).  Another  case — the  reported  conduct  of  a  slave-trade — I  deemed  called 
for  action,  and  in  calling  attention  to  the  case  it  was  dealt  with.  When  I  tell 
you  that  over  a  length  of  some  two  hundred  miles  of  the  Aruwimi  valley  I 
found  the  administration  in  the  hands  of  an  officer  who  with  a  staff  of  five 
Europeans  and  one  hundred  soldiers  manned  four  stations,  it  needs  no  particular 
discernment  to  discover  that  neither  the  collection  of  taxes  nor  the  execution 
of  justice  could  be  enforced  against  the  will  of  the  people.  In  fact  it  was 
evident  that  those  who  had  made  up  their  minds  not  to  pay  did  not  do  so,  and 
this  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  "  willing  horse."  But  non-compliance  in  the 
matter  of  tax-paying  and  non-submission  to  the  law  are  catching  complaints, 
and  it  is  in  these  I  see  dangers  ahead  of  a  most  serious  kind.  In  my  estimate, 
the  State  is  not  represented  strongly  enough  amongst  these  sturdy  folk,  who 
have  acquired  no  small  amount  of  resourcefulness  and  self-reliance  in  resisting 
the  Sudanese  from  the  north  and  the  Arabs  from  the  south-east.  The  State  was 
welcomed  as  a  deliverer,  and  was  popular  everywhere  till  the  need  for  tax- 
collecting  arose.  Of  course  it  is  impossible  for  the  State  to  be  represented 
more  efficiently  except  at  increased  expense  and  7nore  taxes.  The  State,  I 
believe,  favours  a  policy  of  placing  but  small  power  at  the  disposal  of  its 
representatives  in  its  various  outposts,  having  realized  the  tendency  to  misuse 
such  power.  This  tendency  would  be  less  with  men  of  higher  grade  than 
among  the  foreign  legion  which  the  Belgians  are  enlisting  for  their  work  on  the 
Congo.  There  is  year  by  year  a  notable  increase  in  the  number  of  Italians  in 
the  State  service,  and  also  a  notable  outflow  of  experienced  Belgians  to  the 
better  paid  Commercial  Service,  a  matter  of  very  grave  import  for  the  future. 

"The  Congo  State  has  been  handicapped  from  the  beginning  by  having  had 
so  largely  to  pay  its  own  way,  and  now  that  the  King  has  withdrawn  his 
;^4o,ooo  per  annum  and  Belgium  no  longer  furnishes  the  subsidy  of  ^80,000, 
the  financial  pressure  must  increase,  the  situation  being  rendered  all  the  more 
difficult  from  the  fact  that  large  sums  of  money  (upon  which  interest  must  be 
paid)  are  being  expended  upon  docks  and  the  river  service,  as  well  as  upon  the 
Great  Lakes  Railway  enterprise.  .  .  . 

"The  question  as  to  the  justice  of  territorial  concessions  to  exploitation 
companies,  as  I  need  not  tell  you,  is  much  debated.  Many  Frenchmen  are 
greatly  outraged  by  the  system  as  recently  established  in  French  Congo.  I 
must  say,  it  does  not  commend  itself  to  my  mind,  for  the  people  are  practically 
reduced  to  serfdom — that  I  consider  to  be  a  itiild  way  of  putting  it.  Still,  I 
believe  eminent  jurists  endorse  the  view  that  the  Government  has  an  absolute 
right  to  apportion  the  forests  and  undeveloped  lands.  Perhaps  so,  but  have 
they  the  right  to  compel  the  people  to  collect  produce  and  to  develop  the 
land  ?  However,  I  know  there  is  no  making  of  omelets  without  the  breaking 
of  eggs,  and  that  every  great  enterprise  is  bound  here  and  there  to  tread  on 
individual  rights  ;  and  in  view  of  the  high  aims  and  even  the  grand  achieve- 
ments of  the  Congo  State  it  is  to  be  forgiven  much.    Violent  men  are  found 


I. — 2  I 


482   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


from  time  to  time  to  come  to  the  front  in  every  big  colonial  enterprise,  and 
unfortunately  the  Belgians  have  sent  some  to  the  Congo.  But  knowing  the 
Belgian  officers  and  officials  as  I  do,  I  am  greatly  pained  from  time  to  time  to 
see  them  all  classed  together  by  the  British  journalist  as  a  bloodthirsty,  in- 
capable lot.  I  do  not  think  the  Britisher  himself  would  have  covered  the 
ground  so  quickly  or  effectively  as  the  Belgian  has  done.  He  might,  by  reason 
of  his  experience  perhaps,  have  avoided  some  of  the  pitfalls,  but  it  would  have 
been  contrary  to  history  for  him  to  have  carried  through  so  great  a  work  with- 
out richly  deserving  the  lash  of  the  censor.  The  Congo  owes  an  inestimable 
debt  to  the  high-minded,  far-seeing  men  who  in  their  devotion  to  King  Leopold 
took  up  his  Congo  enterprise  and  threw  themselves  into  it  with  a  loyalty 
beyond  any  praise  I  am  able  to  bestow.  Unfortunately,  the  romance  of  the 
Congo  is  wearing  off,  and  the  supply  of  wise  and  capable  men  is  barely  enough 
for  the  position  of  responsibility,  and  the  rank  and  file  are  now  no  longer 
actuated  by  an  intense  loyalty  to  the  King  and  his  work — this  to  the  dis- 
advantage of  the  Congo.  .  .  .  George  Grenfell." 

To  another  correspondent  in  1903  he  vi^rites  : — 

"  I  want  you  when  you  see  ...  to  bring  to  his  notice  the  fact  that  the 
Congo  State  is  doing  little  or  nothing  towards  the  development  of  a  class  of 
native  whose  great  interest  it  should  be  to  maintain  the  status  quo.  Sir  Hugh^ 
understands  very  clearly  that  British  success  has  been  largely  the  result  of  the 
persistent  aim  of  our  administrators  to  make  it  a  matter  of  self-interest  to  an 
important  and  numerous  class  to  support  the  Government.  I  know  that  the 
general  lot  of  the  Congo  peoples  is  better  and  happier  for  the  rule  of  the  State, 
but  the  fact  is  not  so  evident  to  the  people  themselves,  and  many  of  them  think 
the  black  man  when  the  white  man  leaves  the  country  will  manage  things 
better.  On  the  Lower  River  the  people  now  recognize,  I  think,  that  the  white 
man  has  come  to  stay,  but  on  the  Upper  River  the  people  still  talk  as  they  used 
to  do  on  the  Lower  of  the  time  when  they  will  be  left  to  themselves  again. 
'  The  ivory  is  nearly  done,  and  the  rubber  will  soon  be  finished,  and  then  the 
white  man  will  go  away  again.'  South  Africa  seems  destined  to  become  a 
white  man's  country,  but  the  Congo  can  itcver  be  so.  The  white  man  by  the 
mere  force  of  numbers  can  dominate  the  situation  south  of  the  Zambezi,  but 
he  will  never  do  so  to  the  north.  The  power  that  is  to  be  firmly  established  on 
the  Congo  is  the  power  that  shall  be  based  upon  the  self-interest  of  the  people 
or  upon  that  of  the  leading  class.  A  very  considerable  amount  of  enlighten- 
ment is  being  acquired  by  the  natives  as  soldiers  in  the  whole  of  the  black 
man's  belt.  As  soldiers,  large  numbers  of  the  Congo  and  Aruwimi  men  are 
widely  travelled,  and  have  become  resourceful.  They  are  gaining  a  higher 
appreciation  of  their  own  power  and  importance  in  the  scale  of  things,  and  at 
the  same  time  are  realizing  that  in  many  directions  their  privileges  are  being 
curtailed.  Instead  of  a  large  class  being  created  who  recognize  it  as  to  their 
own  interest  to  support  the  Government,  the  very  reverse  is  taking  place. 

"  The  gradual  development  of  a  more  or  less  educated  class  with  a  personal 
interest  in  the  development  of  the  resources  of  the  country  could  be  counted 
upon  to  favour  the  stability  of  the  Government  under  which  it  prospered.  The 
world  is  too  old  and  the  circumstances  of  the  Tropics  too  adverse  to  allow  of 
the  Congo  being  successfully  administered  without  the  intelligent  co-operation 
of  the  heads  of  the  people  and  without  very  cogent  appeals  to  their  self- 
interest.  Educational  facilities  for  the  intelligent  and  business  opportunities 
for  the  enterprising   would  soon  create  a  class  whose  sympathies  would  be 

^  Sir  Hugh  Gikean  Reid,  with  whom  Grenfell  corresponded  a  good  deal. 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  483 


in  favour  of  a  stable  government.  True,  they  might  also  develop  the  desire 
for  self-government  and  lead  to  trouble  that  way ;  but  this  I  take  it  is  both 
much  more  remote  and  much  less  serious  than  the  continuance  of  the  present 
social  system.  Trained  intelligence  is  much  more  likely  to  appreciate  the 
resources  and  advantages  of  civiHzation  than  semi-enlightenment,  which 
(following  words  illegible).  Just  the  measures  that  should  be  taken  (to  check) 
the  fast-spreading  (disaffection)  are  not  for  me  to  say :  I'm  no  administrator,  but 
have  eyes  to  see  the  difficulties  ahead,  and  I  should  be  glad  to  see  the  State 
steering  clear  of  them.  Britain  would  find  it  difficult  to  maintain  her  authority 
in  Africa  if  she  had 
to  rely  only  on  African 
troops,  though  she  can 
draw  levies  from  the  ex- 
treme corners  of  the 
continent.  The  Congo 
people  are  all  neighbours, 
speaking  languages  all 
derived  from  the  same 
mother-tongue,  and  the 
lingua  franca  of  the 
Congo  State  is  already 
spoken  from  Banana 
Point  to  the  Nile.  They 
live  under  the  same  cli- 
matic conditions,  and 
they  are  in  no  way  kept 
apart  by  any  difficulties 
of  creed.  They  are 
practically  as  much  at 
home  in  one  part  of 
the  State  as  in  another. 
Officials  are  not  all  blind 
as  to  the  possibilities ; 
but  Congo  service  is  not 
generally  regarded  as  a 
career.  It  offers  no  pen- 
sions. '  It  will  last  my 
time '  is  a  sentiment  I 
have  often  heard  ex- 
pressed. In  writing  as  I 
do,  it  must  not  be 
thought  that  I  have  any 
reason  to  apprehend  any  immediate  difficulty.  The  troubles  I  foresee  are  in 
the  future,  but  how  far  ahead  I  cannot  say.  If  the  developments  that  have 
taken  place  since  the  foundation  of  the  State  are  continued  at  the  same  pace, 
great  changes  will  have  to  be  provided  for  a  few  years  hence,  and  these  changes 
can  only  be  intelligently  appreciated  and  provided  for  by  men  who  make  the 
Congo  service  a  life  career.  Doubtless  things  will  last  my  time,  but  it  would  be 
a  great  joy  for  me  to  see  things  shaping  away  from,  and  not  towards,  disaster." 

In  the  same  volume  of  his  journal  Grenfell  appends  rough  notes, 
evidently  connected  with  this  letter  : — 

"  There  are  three  divisions  of  the  people,  namely,  the  small  Europeanized 
class  ;  the  trading  middle-men  ;  and  the  exploited  bushmen. 


245.  TWO  BANGALA  SOLDIERS  IN  THK  SERVICE  OF 

THE  CONGO  STATE 

These  men  are  off  duty  and  in  "  mufti."    The  Bangala  are  the  best, 
most  loyal,  and  most  intelligent  soldiers  in  the  State's  forces. 


484   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


"  I  see  Monsieur    advances  the  '  beyond  the  pale  of  the  family '  idea 

to  justify  the  bad  treatment  meted  out.  To  secure  loyal  subjects  self-interest 
must  be  appealed  to.  We  should  hardly  be  such  ardent  Britons  if  we  felt  it 
would  be  better  to  be  under  another  type  of  Government.  The  good  of  the 
people  must  be  sought  if  commerce  is  to  prosper  and  order  is  to  be  main- 
tained." 


APPENDIX  III 

[In  1904-5  Viscount  Mountmorres  made  a  long  tour  of  inspection  over 
the  Congo  Independent  State  (Mubangi,  Aruwimi,  main  Congo, 
Lulongo,  Busira,  lakes  Ntomba,  Leopold  II,  and  lower  Kasai),  and 
in  1905  presented  an  interesting  Report  to  the  Foreign  Office.  This  was 
subsequently  published  as  a  book  {The  Congo  Independait  State)  by 
Williams  and  Norgate.  I  am  permitted  to  quote  some  of  Lord  Mount- 
morres's  opinions  and  impressions.] 

Lord  Mountmorres  admits  that  the  salaries  paid  to  the  State 
officials  are  peculiarly  low  in  comparison  with  those  in  British  colonies. 
But  he  goes  on  to  state  that  the  Congo  officials  receive  an  absolutely 
comprehensive  equipment  for  Africa  at  the  cost  of  the  State,  and 
during  the  whole  term  of  their  service  are  provisioned  at  the  expense  of 
their  Government  and  receive  various  allowances  for  carriage  and 
postage.  They  are  also  inscribed  (if  they  are  Belgians)  on  the  list  of 
State  annuities,  so  that  after  a  reasonable  term  of  service  they  can  retire 
on  something  equivalent  to  a  pension.  He  writes  in  very  emphatic 
terms  as  to  the  excellence  of  the  provisions  supplied  by  the  State  to  its 
officials,  whose  dietary,  according  to  his  description,  is  far  superior  to 
anything  that  can  be  obtained  by  the  average  British  official  in  tropical 
Africa.  [On  this  point  the  present  writer  can  confirm  him  from  his  own 
experience  of  Belgian  stations  in  the  Ituri  Forest.  The  furniture  of 
the  houses  in  this,  the  then  remotest  part  of  the  State,  was  worthy  of  a 
good  Belgian  hotel,  and  the  food,  wine,  and  other  provisions  of  the  best 
quality.]  Since  this  has  come  into  force  the  death-rate  amongst  the 
Belgian  officials  has  diminished  from  something  like  50  per  cent  to 
2  per  cent,  showing  how  much  to  do  with  health  have  comfort  and  good 
food. 

"  Mr.  Grenfell  ...  is  rightly  indignant  at  the  unauthorized  and  unjusti- 
fiable use  that  has  been  made  of  his  name  by  Congo  apologists,  who  unhesi- 
tatingly cite  him  as  approving  of  the  whole  system  as  at  present  existing,  and 
have  based  their  action  in  so  doing  on  the  generous  and  fair-minded  tributes 
which  he  has  from  time  to  time  paid  to  the  good  that  has  been  done  in  the  State, 
without  any  reference  to  his  very  stringent  criticism  of  the  evils  and  abuses  that 
he  emphatically  maintains  exist.  The  opinions  of  Grenfell  are  particularly 
deserving  of  attention.  .  .  .  He  has  spent,  I  believe,  some  thirty-five  years  in 
tropical  Africa  ;  he  is  a  very  distinguished  explorer  and  traveller,  and  has  done 
magnificent  work  in  the  only  accurate  and  complete  survey  of  the  Congo  River 
and  its  principal  tributaries.  He  is  an  authority  alike  on  its  topography  and  its 
ethnography.  He  is  fully  alive  to  the  good  that  has  been  done,  but  he  is  so 
decidedly  of  opinion  that  this  good  has  been  accompanied  by  great  and  terrible 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  485 


evils,  that  as  a  protest  he  has  declined  any  longer  to  wear  the  insignia  of  the 
order  with  which  the  Sovereign  of  the  Independent  State  decorated  him  as  a 
mark  of  the  services  he  had  rendered  to  the  development  of  the  country ;  and 
he  publicly  announced  this  protest  at  one  of  the  sittings  of  the  Royal  Com- 
mission." 

The  summing  up  of  the  report  of  Viscount  Mountmorres  is  that 
where  the  State  has  directly  governed  the  territories  of  the  Congo  basin, 
though  it  has  made  some  mistakes,  has  maintained  wrong  theories  sub- 
sequently abandoned,  it  has  on  the  whole  done  great  good  to  the  regions 
governed,  as  much  good  as  has  been  achieved  in  similar  regions  of 
tropical  Africa  by  the  forces  of  other  European  Powers.  But  he  is  un- 
sparing in  his  condemnation  of  the  "  Concessions  "  regime.  For  this 
regime  the  King  of  the  Belgians  beyond  all  question  is  to  be  held  per- 
sonally responsible.  Although  Lord  Mountmorres  may  not  draw  this 
deduction  in  so  many  words,  it  is  the  only  one  which  a  fair-minded 
reader  can  deduce  from  his  pages. 

"To  place  a  large  territory  (that  of  the  A.B.I.R.  Company)  under  the  control 
of  a  purely  commercial  concern,  without  reserving  any  rights  as  to  the  appoint- 
ment or  supervision  of  its  officials,  without  insisting  on  their  being  possessed  of 
any  competent  qualification,  would  itself  appear  to  be  a  direct  permission  on 
the  part  of  the  Government  to  that  Company  to  do  as  it  pleases  without  fear  of 
any  questions  being  asked.  When  in  addition  to  this,  however,  the  Company  is 
nominally  entrusted  with  the  poUcing  of  the  district,  and  by  the  law  of  the 
State  nominally  deprived  of  all  powers  of  enforcing  its  policing  authority,  it  is 
only  natural  that  one  of  two  things,  or  perhaps  both,  must  occur  :  either  the 
pohcing  will  be  wholly  neglected,  or  the  officials  of  the  Company  will  have  re- 
course to  illegal  means  of  enforcing  their  authority  and  maintaining  their 
prestige.   In  the  case  of  the  Abir,  it  is  obvious  that  both  results  have  followed." 

As  regards  the  character  of  certain  functionaries  employed  by  this 
Company,  Lord  Mountmorres  is  obliged  in  several  instances  to  write  in 
very  disparaging  terms.  One  of  its  officials,  he  concludes,  can  be  most 
charitably  described  as  a  criminal  lunatic  owing  to  the  atrocities  of 
which  he  had  been  guilty.  In  another  phrase  he  refers  to  the  discredited 
Mongala  Company,  which  was  deprived  of  its  concession  owing  to  the 
abominable  actions  of  its  agents.  Elsewhere  he  admits  that  in  the  Abir 
territory  the  population  has  decreased  to  a  most  alarming  extent  since 
its  occupation  by  the  Company.  His  sweeping  condemnation  of  these 
doings  is  made  also  to  apply  to  the  Lulongo  Company,  "  whose  territory 
adjoins  that  of  the  Abir,  from  the  point  where  the  name  of  the  Lopori 
is  changed  to  the  Lulongo  down  to  its  junction  with  the  Congo."  Again 
he  says : — 

"  One  of  the  richest  and  apparently  at  one  time  most  populous  districts 
.  .  .  is  being  laid  waste  by  the  greed  and  cruelty  of  an  unscrupulous  and  dis- 
reputable gang,  whose  atrocious  actions  may,  if  not  speedily  and  effectually 
stopped,  lead  to  a  condition  of  affairs  which  will  constitute  a  grave  menace  to 
the  white  man's  security  in  Central  Africa." 


486   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


APPENDIX  IV 

The  core  of  most  problems  connected  with  the  opening  up  of  Africa 
is  cheap  labour.  The  negro,  as  compared  to  the  European  and 
Asiatic,  is  fitful  in  industry.  He  can  put  fire,  energy,  strength,  skill, 
intelligence  into  his  work  if  he  is  in  the  mood,  if  he  is  attracted  by  an 
immediate,  tangible  reward,  or  is  spurred  on  (as  he  can  be  so  easily, 
poor  soul  !)  by  affection  or  admiration  for  the  white  man.  But  work 
for  work's  sake  in  his — to  him — delicious  climate  and  well-provided 
country  is  no  ideal  at  present  native  to  negro  Africa.  And  then  he  has 
been  so  often  cheated.  He  has  been  the  butt  and  the  prey  of  the 
shrewd  Caucasian  since  the  uprising  of  Semiticized  Egypt  eighty  cen- 
turies ago  and  down  to  the  last  rogueries  of  South  African  mine 
managers.^  But  he  ivill  work- — and  none  better — if  you  take  him  into 
partnership,  convince  him  of  your  honesty  and  treat  him  fairly. 
In  reference  to  the  Congo  problem  in  1894  Grenfell  writes  : — 

"  Labour  is  good  for  the  people,  but  only  if  they  find  some  satisfaction  in  it. 
No  man  cares  to  go  to  the  trouble  of  pumping  water  for  the  sake  of  emptying 
it  into  the  sea.  If  his  work  stands  he  may  take  some  pride  in  it,  or,  what  the 
great  majority  much  more  appreciate,  if  the  labour  results  in  something  more  to 
eat  or  better  to  wear,  there  is  an  incentive  of  the  most  practical  kind.  .  .  . 
Under  the  present  system  (the  State  collection  of  rubber)  the  result  is  really 
forced  labour.  It  is  very  important  for  the  future  of  the  State  that  a  healthy 
commerce  should  be  fostered,  and  if  the  people  were  only  paid  for  their  labour 
they  would  become  accustomed  to  making  use  of  the  goods  they  receive,  and 
what  are  now  luxuries  would  soon  become  necessaries.  Instead  of  this,  how- 
ever, the  present  system  is  wasting  the  resources  of  the  country ;  for  the  people 
are  destroying  the  rubber  vines,  not  only  needlessly  as  they  take  the  juice,  but 
also  of  set  purpose,  so  as  to  destroy  (as  they  think)  the  value  of  the  country  in 
the  eyes  of  the  white  man.  In  many  districts  they  thought  their  fine  farms  were 
an  attraction  to  the  Arabs,  and  so  destroyed  them." 

The  railway  enterprises  of  Belgium  on  the  Congo  having  been  an 
admitted  success,  and  the  opinions  of  Messrs.  Wauters,  Thys,  and  Goffin 
commanding  respect  in  British  negrophile  circles,  at  the  suggestion  of 
the  Rev.  Lawson  Forfeitt  I  applied  to  the  management  of  the  Lower 
Congo  Railway  for  information  on  the  labour  question  in  Congoland. 

As  a  result,  M.  Louis  Goffin,  late  Engineer-in-Chief  of  the  Congo 
Railway  [and  now  Engineer-Director  at  the  Brussels  headquarters  of 
the  company],  allows  me  to  summarize  and  reprint  the  following  re- 
marks on  the  subject  of  forced  labour  : — - 

"Unfortunately,  very  few  of  the  Congolese-^  can  shake  themselves  free 
of  the  influence  of  a  tradition  created  by  the  first  necessities  in  the  task 

'  Vide  numerous  Colonial  Blue  Books. 

-'  La  Main  d'CEuvre  ati  Congo  ;  also  Le  Chetnin  de  fir  du  Congo.  Louis  Goffin,  Weissen- 
bruch,  Brussels. 

^  By  "Congolese"  M.  Goffin  means  Europeans  connected  with  the  Congo. 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  487 


of  opening  up  Africa.  If  you  question  them  they  will  reply  for  the  most  part 
that  forced  labour  is  necessary ;  that  if  the  black  man  is  not  constrained  to 
work  he  remains  idle.  This  opinion  is  even  shared  by  some  of  the  highest 
functionaries. 

"We  also— my  comrades  and  I  of  the  railway — held  this  view  during  the 
first  years  of  the  construction  of  the  line  from  Matadi  to  Leopoldville,  but 
the  facts  of  the  case  gradually  modified  our  opinion.  ...  At  the  beginning  we 
had  several  hundred  men  recruited  from  the  lower  grades  of  the  population 
of  Sierra  Leone.  We  were  unable  to  engage  the  natives  of  the  Cataract  region 
of  the  Congo,  because  their  labour  was  considered  scarcely  to  suffice  for  the 
needs  of  ordinary  porterage  between  Matadi  and  Leopoldville  on  the  part 


246.  A  STREET  IN  MATADI,  THE  MOST  IMPORTANT  COMMERCIAL  CENTRE  ON 
THE  LOWER  CONGO,  STARTING-POINT  OK  THE  CONGO  RAILWAY 


of  the  State,  of  the  Missions,  and  of  trading  firms.  So  we  also  recruited 
Kruboys,  Accra  men,  Hausas  from  Lagos,  and  natives  from  Dahome. 

"  We  found  ourselves,  as  everybody  knows,  face  to  face  with  great  natural 
obstacles.  Moreover,  our  black  personnel,  quite  as  much  as  the  staff  of  white 
men,  was  decimated  by  sickness.  Out  of  two  thousand  negroes  employed  on 
the  construction  in  1892,  one  hundred  and  fifty  a  month  died  from  illness, 
principally  in  that  valley  of  the  Mpozo  so  much  admired  nowadays  by  the 
traveller  comfortably  installed  in  a  saloon  car. 

"  All  along  the  track  one  would  see  corpses  of  negroes  dead  of  smallpox, 
dysentery,  beri-beri.  At  times  in  the  morning  we  might  find  before  the  door 
of  our  cabin  the  corpse  of  some  negro  dead  during  the  night,  placed  there 
by  his  exasperated  comrades  as  a  protest.  .  .  .  The  men  who  still  remained  un- 
touched by  sickness  were  demoralized  by  fear,  and  had  to  be  compelled  to  work 
by  dint  of  sheer  force,  the  force  used  being  the  negative  one  of  depriving  them 
of  all  salary  or  even  rations.  ...  It  was,  in  fact,  forced  labour.  But  what 
were  we  to  do  ?    It  was  vitally  necessary  to  construct  this  line  of  railway. 


488   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


to  suppress  for  ever  the  far  more  awful  tax  of  human  porterage  along  this  route 
of  the  caravans  between  the  Upper  and  the  Lower  Congo,  'un  sentier  sinistre, 
jalonne  de  cadavres.' 

"  Of  course  we  treated  our  men  with  as  much  humanity  as  possible,  and 
did  all  we  could  to  make  their  condition  sanitary.  Little  by  little  we  succeeded, 
and  gradually  made  a  selection  amongst  the  black  labourers  from  those  races 
best  suited  to  the  climate.  But  a  panic  had  arisen  all  along  the  West  Coast  of 
Africa,  caused  by  the  sick  men  whom  we  had  repatriated.  This  rendered 
further  recruitment  in  that  direction  impossible.  Then  we  tried  importing 
West  Indian  negroes  and  Chinese  from  Macao.  They  fared  no  better  than  the 
first  lot  of  two  thousand  men  who  had  come  from  West  Africa.^   Still  we  pegged 


away  at  the  gradual  improvement  of  the  conditions  of  life  for  black  men  and 
white  in  this  terrible  Cataract  region.  One  of  the  best  things  we  did  was  the 
growth  of  vegetables  and  the  supply  of  fresh  food  material,  instead  of  relying  on 
preserved  foods  and  tins.  Gradually  we  were  able  to  induce  people  to  come 
once  more  from  West  Africa,  from  Senegal,  Sierra  Leone,  and  Accra.  Under 
the  most  elaborately  careful  conditions  of  life  and  comfort,  these  negro  work- 
men suffered  no  longer  in  health  or  morale.  But  they  produced  precious  little. 
We  said  to  ourselves  like  a  recent  Commission  of  Inquiry  has  declared,  '  It  is 
the  born  indolence  of  the  negro.'  We  sought  for  a  method  of  conquering  this 
natural  disinclination  to  work.  We  might,  it  is  true,  use  something  like  force 
to  compel  them  to  work  without  ceasing  during  the  hours  allotted  to  work  ; 

^  In  regard  to  the  Chinese,  a  curious  incident  occurred.  They  were  filled  with  such 
horror  at  the  unhealthiness  and  the  frightful  heat  of  the  Cataract  region,  that  not  being  able 
to  smuggle  themselves  on  board  steamers  and  get  away  to  the  sea,  they  fled  inland  like  people 
distraught.  Meeting  with  little  or  no  hostility  from  the  natives,  they  gradually  wandered  as  far 
afield  as  the  Sankuru  River  in  the  very  heart  of  south-central  Congoland.  flere  the  survivors 
settled  down,  married  native  women,  and  are  actually  influencing  the  population  !  (H.  H.  J.) 


247.  .\  TRAIN  ON  THE  CONGO  RAILWAY 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  489 


but  this  was  an  expensive  and  disagreeable  proceeding,  and  would  have  ended 
by  provoking  mutinies.  .  .  .  We  were  therefore  in  this  impasse,  when  all  at 
once  the  idea  occurred  to  us  to  generalize  a  plan  which  had  been  adopted  for 
certain  special  tasks  with  picked  men.  In  other  words,  we  adopted  piece- 
tvork,  '  travail  a  la  tache  ou  a  primes.'  We  sought  to  interest  these  negro 
workers  directly  in  the  amount  of  work  they  put  forth. 

"  The  immediate  results  were  extraordinary.  The  work  at  once  was 
doubled  from  one  day  to  another.  In  one  year  ninety  kilometres  were  con- 
structed as  against  thirty-five  the  year  before,  and  subsequently  the  increase,  the 
vigour,  and  the  rapidity  of  the  work  went  on  doubling.  The  aspect  of  the 
workshops  was  completely  transformed.  Men  volunteered  for  overtime  work 
in  order  to  ensure  the  completion  of  their  tasks  within  the  fixed  period.  They 


RAILWAY  STAIlij.\  (i.N    ilil.  IJNE  FROM  MATADI  TO  STANLEY  POOL 


themselves  did  justice  on  any  sluggard,  and  dragged  him  if  necessary  to 
his  task. 

"  Under  this  impulsion  the  aptitude  of  the  negroes  for  business  matters  was 
remarkably  manifested.  We  were  able  to  state  that  in  this  respect  it  was  in  no 
way  inferior  to  that  of  the  best  European  workmen.  It  is  thus  that  we  have 
been  able  to  take  part  in  the  most  interesting  discussions  on  cost  price, 
measurements,  and  other  details  of  close  contract  work  between  the  head  men 
of  the  black  gangs  and  the  white  officials.  In  some  cases  the  gang  would 
depose  their  foreman  if  he  was  not  in  their  eyes  quite  competent,  or  because  he 
did  not  worry  the  white  man  sufficiently  in  hauling  up  machinery,  explosives, 
or  the  material  of  the  Decauville  tramway  !  .  .  .  Those  who  read  this  may 
observe  that  in  the  foregoing  paragraph  I  was  dealing  with  black  men  from  the 
West  Coast  of  Africa  long  in  direct  relations  with  Europeans ;  they  might  say 
'Ah,  yes,  you  would  not  get  the  same  results  if  you  applied  the  system  of  piece- 
work to  Congo  natives.'    We  would  reply  to  this  that  the  greater  part  of  our 


490   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


personnel  was  comprised  of  people  coming  from  the  far  hinterland  of  Sierra 
Leone  or  the  great  bend  of  the  Niger,  who  had  had  if  anything  less  direct 
relations  with  Europeans  previously  than  was  the  case  with  negroes  of  the 
Congo  Cataract  region.  .  .  .  We  were  soon  to  see  how  an  attempt  to  interest 
Congo  labourers  directly  in  the  results  of  their  work  was  to  answer.  The 
completion  of  the  railway  suppressed  the  hateful  system  of  human  porteage 
and  released  enormous  numbers  of  Congo  men,  who  were  then  free  to  engage 
in  the  service  of  the  Railway  Company.  The  Company  at  once  put  them  on 
piecework,  with  the  result  that  it  was  soon  able  to  rely  entirely  on  local  labour, 
and  was  not  any  longer  obliged  to  recruit  Senegalese  or  Sierra  Leone  men, 
except  for  clerical  work  or  as  highly-trained  arti.sans.  At  the  present  time 
(1905),  1600  Congo  natives  are  employed  on  the  railway  as  navvies,  shunters, 
engine-drivers,  pointsmen,  station  employes,  labourers,  etc.,  etc.  At  the  ex- 
piration of  their  term  of  service  they  return  for  a  short  holiday  to  their  villages, 
and  are  replaced  by  others  back  from  their  leave  of  absence.  Their  holiday 
over,  they  return  promptly  to  work.  They  have  founded  prosperous  villages 
all  along  the  line. 

"  What  is  it  that  attaches  this  population  to  the  Railway  ?  Firstly  it  is  a 
salary  in  good  money,  and  a  sitfficient  salar}- :  secondly  it  is  the  regular  rations 
of  good  food  [here  follow  details  of  the  rations].  It  is  sufficient  to  compare 
the  men  employed  by  the  Railway  with  the  other  natives  to  convince  oneself 
that  they  are  more  robust,  better  nourished,  keener,  and  more  active.  Out  of 
their  salary  they  can  purchase  what  additional  comforts  or  luxuries  they  want." 

Elsewhere  in  this  interesting  report  Gofifin  lays  stress  on  the 
hateful  system  employed  in  the  inner  basin  of  the  Congo  of  paying 
State  or  other  labourers  in  trade  goods  or  local  currencies.  Very  often 
they  do  not  want  the  trade  goods  in  question,  while  as  to  the  value  of 
the  currency,  it  is  so  fluctuating  and  uncertain  as  not  to  attract  the 
natives  to  free  labour.  Gof¥in  lays  the  utmost  stress  on  the  import- 
ance of  paying  all  native  workers  with  good  viotiey,  exactly  on  the  same 
lines  as  Europeans.  If  they  wish  to  spend  the  money,  they  can,  but  if 
they  do  not,  they  can  save  it ;  but  the  possession  of  this  money  is  quite 
sufficient  to  turn  the  negro  from  a  lazy  loafer  into  a  splendid  worker. 

ls\.  Coffin  goes  on  to  draw  the  moral  that  the  State  itself  and  all 
commercial  ox  concessionnaire  zom^dsn&s  [and  missionary.institutions  of  no 
matter  what  Church]  should  do  the  same  thing.  All  labour  should  be 
paid  for  in  money.  If  the  Company  or  Society  in  question  chooses  to 
establish  a  store  and  to  sell  goods  at  a  fair  rate,  the  native,  being  natu- 
rally "  dispendieux,"  will  probably  spend  a  large  proportion  of  his  wages 
at  his  employer's  shop.  If  not,  he  will  spend  the  rest  amongst  his  com- 
patriots in  buying  native  provisions  or  in  accumulating  the  marriage 
price  of  a  wife. 

M.  Gofifin  points  out  that  certain  French  officials  in  French  Congo  in- 
troduced the  system  of  paying  native  porters  in  coin,  with  most  happy 
results  as  regards  facility  of  recruitment. 

If  there  were  more  Belgian  officials  in  Africa  like  M.  Goffin,  and 
if  they  had  had  greater  power  accorded  to  them,  the  Congo  State 
would  have  been  a  happier  and  more  prosperous  dominion. 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  491 


APPENDIX  V 

RECORD  OF  SCIENTIFIC  WORK,  ETC. 
ACCOMPLISHED  BY  THE  CONGO  STATE 

The  whole  of  the  area  of  the  Congo  basin  within  the  poHttcal  hmits 
of  the  Independent  State  of  the  Congo  has  now  been  carefully  mapped, 
with  the  exception  of  the  extreme  south-west. 

The  upper  waters  of  the  Wamba,  Saia-Inzia,  Kwengo,  Kwilu, 
Luanje,  and  above  all  of  the  Kasai,  still  show  considerable  blanks 
or  stretches  of  dotted  lines.  Mr.  Emil  Torday  has  done  a  good  deal 
of  late  as  an  independent  explorer  to  map  the  courses  of  the  riv'ers 
between  the  Kwilu  and  the  Kwango,  but  there  are  still  gaps  between 
his  researches  and  those  of  Grenfell  and  the  Portuguese.  Dr.  Leo 
Frobenius,  on  behalf  of  the  German  Society  for  the  exploration  of  inner 
Africa,  has  of  late  a  little  extended  our  accurate  geographical  know- 
ledge of  the  middle  Kasai ;  but  for  the  most  part  the  whole  course  of 
that  river  between  Maimunene  on  the  north  (about  6°  30'  S.  Lat.)  and 
Katende  near  the  Zambezi  watershed  is  practically  unknown.  The 
upper  course  of  the  Luebo,  the  middle  course  of  the  Lulua  are  likewise 
imperfectly  known  to  geography.  These  gaps  are  due  to  the  extreme 
hostility  displayed  towards  the  Congo  State  by  the  native  kings  and 
chiefs,  a  hostility  dating  from  the  first  skirmishes  with  the  State  forces 
in  1892. 

There  is  also  a  little  unknown  ground  immediately  to  the  west 
of  the  northern  regions  of  Lake  Tanganyika.  The  plateau  and  moun- 
tain region  which  extends  along  the  edge  of  the  great  rift  valley  from 
Lake  Kivu  to  the  Manyema  country  has  not  as  yet  been  completely 
surveyed.  With  these  exceptions,  the  geographical  work  accomplished 
by  the  State  representatives  (for  the  most  part  Belgian  officers)  since 
the  first  great  revelations  of  Stanley,  Wissmann,  and  Grenfell  is  truly 
remarkable,  an  achievement  without  parallel  in  the  history  of  geo- 
graphical discovery.  In  that  excellent  publication  the  Bibliographie 
du  Congo  by  A.  J.  Wauters,  under  the  heading  of  "  Meteorology 
and  Climatology,"  will  be  found  lists  of  contributions  to  that  branch 
of  study  by  Dr.  E.  Etienne,  Ch.  Lemaire,  and  other  Belgian  officials 
of  the  Congo  State.  Alfred  Dewevre,  D.  De  VVildeman,  A.  J. 
Wauters  have  all  published  valuable  studies  on  the  Congo  flora. 
No  less  than  six  important  botanical  publications,  chiefly  by  De 
Wildeman,  Durand,  Emile  Laurent,  have  been  published  by  the  State 
in  the  "Annales  du  Musee  du  Congo."  This  Congo  museum,  founded 
by  King  Leopold  at  Tervueren,  a  suburb  of  Brussels,  about  1883,  has 
issued  a  very  important  series  of  scientific  publications  besides  the 
botanical  studies  of  Wildeman.    It  has  employed  Mr.  G.  A.  Boulenger, 


492   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


F.R.S.,  of  the  British  Museum,^  to  illustrate  the  fish  of  the  Congo  basin 
from  the  collections  made  by  Lieuts.  Wilverth,  Wagenaar,  and  De  Bauw 
(1897);  by  M.  Paul  Delhez  in  1899-1900  (a  magnificent  collection);  by 
Commandants  Cabra,  Descamps,  Weyns,  and  Lemaire  ;  and  by 
Lieutenants  Hecq  and  Demeuse ;  also  by  the  Baptist  missionaries, 
Revs.  J.  H.  Weeks,  G.  Grenfell,  and  W.  H.  Bentley.  Mr.  Boulenger  has 
also  written  on  new  forms  of  reptiles  and  batrachians  collected  in  the 
Congo  State,  and  Alphonse  Dubois  has  illustrated  some  of  the  new 
types  of  birds,  and  has  given  a  fairly  complete  list  of  the  ornithological 
fauna.  Herr  Paul  Matschie,  the  well-known  zoologist  of  Berlin,  was 
employed  by  the  Congo  Museum  to  describe  and  illustrate  the  remark- 
able Forest  Pig  of  the  Ituri  Forest  {Hylochcerus  iiiiriensis).    M.  Julien 


on  the  Musical  Instruments  and  on  all  Objects  connected  with  Religious 
Belief,  and  the  pottery  {Ceramics)  of  the  Congo,  this  last  survey  being 
of  unique  value  and  of  great  ethnographical  importance.  (The  names 
of  the  authors  of  these  last  three  admirable  monographs  are  not  pub- 
lished.) Finally,  amongst  notable  publications  of  the  State  Museum,  is 
the  Dictionary  of  the  Kitabwa  language,  by  the  Rev.  Father  Auguste 
van  Acker.  Mention  should  also  be  made  of  the  Quelques  peuplades 
du  district  de  VUele,  by  Professor  Joseph  Halkin,  of  Liege,  treating 
of  the  Ababua  and  other  Bantu  tribes  on  the  Bomokandi-Wele 
River. 

It  may  be  safely  said  without  fear  of  contradiction  that  no  African 
state  with  the  exception  of  Egypt  and  perhaps  Tunis  has  been  so 
sumptuous  in  its  contributions  to  scientific  knowledge  as  the  Indepen- 
dent State  of  the  Congo.  One  thrills  to  think  of  what  a  gain  to  human 
knowledge  might  have  accrued  from  a  proportionate  treatment  of  the 


Fraipont  has  just 
(1908)  issued 
through  the  Ter- 
vueren  Museum  a 
study  of  the  Okapia 
genus. 


249.  DISTICHODUS  SEXFASCIATUS,  A  FISH  FROM  THE 
CATARACT  CONGO 
Collected  by  Baptist  missionaries. 


But  perhaps  the 
most  important 
publications  of  the 
Congo  State  have 
dealt  with  the  Eth- 
nography and  An- 
thropology. It  is 
difficult  to  over- 
praise these  works, 
especially  the  fol- 
lowing :  The  Stone 
Age  on  the  Congo, 
by  Xavier  Stainier, 
the  analytical  notes 


^  Mr.  Boulenger  is  a  Belgian  though  naturalized  in  England.  His  splendidly  illustrated 
studies  of  the  Congo  Fish  were  published  by  the  Congo  Museum  in  six  issues  in  1898-99, 
1900-2. 


MISDEEDS,  MISTAKES,  ACHIEVEMENTS  493 


British  dominions  in  South  and  East  Africa,  the  French  colony  of 
Algeria,  the  British  West  African  Colonies  and  Protectorates,  and  the 
French  empire  of  Western  Nigeria.  In  that  direction  only  is  any 
approach  made  to  some  of  the  ethnographical  work  of  the  Congo  State 
Museum.  The  region  of  the  northern  and  western  Niger  has  of  late 
been  well  described  from  an  ethnographical  point  of  view  by  men  like 
Binger  and  Desplagnes.  But  with  the  exception  perhaps  of  Tunis,  in 
none  of  these  regions  has  the  State  directly  assisted,  subsidized,  and 
edited  works  of  scientific  research. 

APPENDIX  VI 

WATERWAYS  AND  RAILWAYS 

A  GLANCE  at  the  sketch  map  on  p.  495  will  show  to  what  a  magnificent 
extent  Nature  has  endowed  the  interior  Congo  basin  with  navigable 
waterways.  Ocean-going  steamers  from  all  parts  of  the  world  can 
enter  the  profound  gulf  of  the  Congo  estuary  and  steam  inland  to 
Matadi,  a  distance  from  the  sea  of  about  1 10  miles  along  the  windings 
of  the  channel.  Then  after  a  journey  of  250  miles  (accomplished  in 
two  days)  by  the  Congo  Railway  the  traveller  or  the  merchandise  is 
delivered  at  Stanley  Pool.  From  this  interior  basin  there  are  between 
four  and  five  thousand  miles  of  navigable  waterways  along  which 
steamers  can  penetrate  into  the  very  heart  of  Central  Africa.  In 
addition,  lakes  Tanganyika  and  Mweru,  the  upper  Lualaba  and 
Luapula  provide  navigable  routes  of  another  twelve  hundred  miles,  only 
separated  from  the  main  Congo  system,  in  direct  water  communication 
with  Stanley  Pool,  by  short  intervals  of  unnavigable  channels  which 
have  already  been  or  are  being  bridged  by  railway.  When  the  last  of 
the  three  main  Congo  railways  is  completed  (these  are:  (i)  Matadi 
to  Stanley  Pool,  (2)  Stanley  Falls  to  Ponthierville,  and  ("3)  Kindu  to 
Kebwa)  it  will  be  possible  to  travel  from  the  mouth  of  the  Congo  to 
the  heart  of  Katanga  in  about  eighteen  days.  A  much  shorter  route 
than  this  would  be  from  Stanley  Pool  along  the  Kwa-Kasai-Sankuru- 
Lubefu,  and  then  a  short  line  of  railway  from  Lubefu  post  to  Kebwa 
on  the  upper  Lualaba.  Other  short  lines  would  connect  the  Lualaba- 
Lukuga  with  Tanganyika  and  the  Lualaba-Laona  with  Lake  Mweru 
and  British  Central  Africa  as  far  south  as  Fort  Rosebery.  These  short 
connecting  lines  would  be  of  far  greater  service  to  the  development  of 
Central  African  commerce,  and  that  of  the  Congo  basin  more  especially, 
than  the  fantastic,  expensive,  and  somewhat  purposeless  "  chemin-de-fer 
des  Grands  Lacs"  which  was  to  connect  Stanley  Falls  with  Lake  Albert 
Nyanza  If  the  three  short  lines  (Lubefu-Lualaba;  Lukuga-Tanganyika ; 
Luvua-Lake  Mweru)  were  constructed  in  addition  to  those  already 
accomplished,  there  would  be  direct  water  and  rail  communication 
between  Rhodesia,  the  Central  Sudan,  and  the  Cameroons  hinterland, 
and  between  German  East  Africa  and  the  Atlantic  coast. 


494    GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


APPENDIX  VII 

ARMY  SERVICE  AS  A  MEANS  OF  EDUCATION 
(settlements  of  time-expired  soldiers) 

Several  allusions  to  the  results  of  enlisting  natives  as  the  armed 
servants  of  the  State— in  fact  of  subjecting  a  large  proportion  of  the 
male  population  of  Congoland  to  a  military  training — have  been  made  in 
the  course  of  this  narrative.  Some  of  the  results  of  arming  this  native 
soldiery  have  been  adversely  commented  on  by  persons  quoted  in  this 
book.  But  Grenfell's  testimony  and  that  of  other  missionaries  has 
sometimes  been  quoted  on  the  other  side,  notably  in  regard  to  the 
civilizing  effects  of  the  colonies  of  retired  soldiers  and  of  the  presence 
in  villages  of  a  soldier  or  policeman  stationed  there  to  keep  order.  It 
is  a  double-edged  weapon  in  the  hands  of  a  tyrannical  regime,  not  only 
under  the  Congo  flag,  but  under  other  ensigns.  If  you  train  thousands 
of  able-bodied  males  of  a  subject  race  to  arms  and  then  abuse  your 
position  as  protector  and  controller  of  a  nation,  you  are  liable  to  have 
your  own  weapon  turned  against  you.  Personally  I  am  strongly  in 
favour  of  military  training— three  or  four  years  of  soldier  life  for  all 
negro  races.  The  good  results — in  the  making  of  sober,  clean,  intelli- 
gent, unsuperstitious,  orderly,  industrious  citizens — are  patent  in  all  the 
more  intelligently  governed  British,  French,  and  German  colonies  and 
protectorates. 

The  following  story  (from  the  B.M.S. //crf/Z/c  Missionary  Herald') 
by  Mrs.  William  Forfeitt,  of  Bopoto,  Northern  Congo,  is  a  capital 
instance  of  the  beneficial  results  achieved  in  many  cases  by  the  military 
training  of  the  Congo  State. 

"  The  whole  district  of  Bopoto  has  been  troubled  for  a  long  time  by  a 
man-eating  crocodile.  It  has  had  many  victims  lately,  and  I  dare  say  has  been 
responsible  for  others  less  recent.  For  a  month  we  heard  nothing  of  it,  but 
suddenly  it  reappeared.  '  How  are  we  to  get  to  our  fishing  camps,'  complained 
the  people,  '  now  the  crocodile  has  returned  ? ' 

"  But  deliverance  was  at  hand.  An  ex-sergeant  of  the  State  army,  who  as 
a  little  boy  was  a  member  of  our  household,  has  now  returned  to  our  service. 
He  has  commenced  a  school  at  the  camp  of  his  late  comrades,  and  goes  from 
here  every  day  by  canoe,  returning  in  the  same  way  a  few  hours  later.  He 
asked  one  day  if  he  might  take  with  him  a  gun  and  cartridges,  in  the  hope  of 
shooting  the  enemy ;  and  on  his  return  two  days  ago  he  saw  the  creature  some 
distance  from  the  bank. 

"  He  had  only  a  small  canoe  and  two  boys  with  him.  One,  not  knowing 
how  to  swim,  begged  to  be  put  ashore  when  he  saw  what  was  to  happen,  and 
was  landed.  Then  Matombi  started  after  the  enemy.  He  went  as  near  as  he 
dared,  and  fired,  hitting  his  prey  close  to  the  eye  and  mortally  wounding  him. 
The  creature  was  too  hurt  to  dive,  but  threw  its  head  up  and  with  open  jaws 
tried  to  rid  itself  of  the  unknown  thing  that  had  stung  it. 


496   GEORGE  GRENFELL  AND  THE  CONGO 


"  Matombi's  little  companion,  terrified  at  the  dreadful  fate  that  seemed  so 
near  them,  came  and  clung  to  his  knees ;  but  he,  telling  him  not  to  fear,  drew  so 
near  that  his  canoe  was  almost  swamped  with  the  water  the  animal  was  churning 
up  in  its  agony.  Again  he  fired,  calling  at  the  same  time  to  the  people  of  the 
village  to  come  and  help  capture  the  prize.  And  the  little  boy,  although  badly 
frightened,  and  running  often  to  Matombi  for  comfort,  still  stuck  to  his  paddle 
and  kept  the  canoe  right. 

"  In  the  morning  the  people  had  said,  '  It  is  no  use  taking  a  gun,  for  no 
gun  or  cartridge  can  kill  this  crocodile.  He  is  a  witch ' ;  and  now  they  were 
too  terrified  for  some  lime  to  do  anything.  But  when  they  saw  Matombi 
persevering,  and  that  the  creature  was  evidently  helpless,  they  went  out  in  large 
numbers  in  their  canoes,  every  man  with  his  spear  poised  ready  to  strike.  Then 
with  a  shout  the  spears  were  thrown,  and  the  cords  attached  drew  the  creature 
on  to  its  doom.  The  shouting  and  excitement  grew  every  moment ;  then,  to 
our  surprise  and  dehght,  we  heard  a  song  of  praise  to  God  for  delivering  the 
enemy  into  their  hands. 

"  When  they  drew  the  great  reptile  ashore,  the  people,  with  looks  of  hatred, 
began  beating  the  dead  body  with  sticks,  saying  as  they  did  so,  'Ah,  you  killed 
my  brother'  (or  sister),  'and  now  you  are  dead.  You  have  made  us  suffer,  and 
now  we  will  make  jw^  suffer.'  And  after  much  noise  and  excitement  they  fixed 
a  strong  chain  round  the  crocodile's  head  and  drew  him  up  the  hill  to  the  front 
of  our  house. 

"  One  idea  that  is  firmly  fixed  in  the  minds  of  these  people  is  that  some 
native  of  the  village  is  the  owner  of  the  crocodile  and  has  bewitched  it,  and 
each  time  any  one  is  killed  they  say  the  owner  drew  the  animal  from  the  water  to 
come  and  catch  another  victim.  You  can  imagine  with  what  triumph,  then, 
they  showed  us  a  hole  through  one  of  the  limbs  of  the  creature.  '  There,'  said 
they;  'now  will  you  say  again  that  the  owner  did  not  draw  him  from  the  water? 
There  is  the  hole  through  which  he  passed  the  cord.' 

"  Matombi,  of  course,  was  the  hero  of  the  hour  ;  but  he  took  it  all  very 
quietly.  He  was  as  pleased  as  anybody  at  having  got  rid  of  their  enemy,  but 
his  seven  years'  discipline  in  the  army  was  quite  evident  in  his  control  of 
himself  and  his  feelings,  a  thing  that  is  quite  foreign  to  the  ordinary  person. 
Said  they,  '  You  must  not  sleep  to  night,  as  the  crocodile  will  make  you  dream 
most  horrible  dreams.'  But  Matombi  refused  to  be  frightened  and  quietly  went 
to  bed.  They  could  not  make  him  either  excited,  frightened,  or  angry.  '  I 
have  been  away  from  this  village,'  he  said,  'and  have  seen  and  heard  many 
things,  and  I  can  no  longer  credit  all  the  absurd  things  I  used  to  believe.' " 


END  OF  VOL.  I 


WILLUM   BRENDON  AND  SON,  LTD. 
PRINTERS,  PLYiMOUTH 


Thk  iiltitutlts  givm  in  llns  ni;i|)  o[  ihu  Cwma  are 
mainly  derived  from  Hclf;iiin  computations  and  Iroiii 
Grcnfoll.  Gicntdl  agrees  (airly  well  with  the  Ltelgiaii 
figure*,  except  as  regards  the  level  of  Stanley  I'ool 
at  the  shore  of  Leopuldvillc  (which  he  makt-i  S8i)  ft. 
ss  against  the  average  930(1.  of  the  Belgians),  and 
the  Mubangi  River  ut  (below)  Zongo,  the  (irenfcll 
altitude  of  which  is  1 ,3q&  (l.,  and  the  IJctgian  1 ,180  ft. 
{ ^  y)0  m.).  Hut  the  I'rench  altitudes  of  the  Western 
Mubnngi  differ  so  setiously  from  those  of  the  Belgians, 
nnd  of  Grenfell.  as  to  make  some  explanation  de^iiahle. 
The  I'rtnch  estimate  of  Zongo  (below  the  (itcnfell 
Falls)  is  only  320m.  (=  1.053ft.),  and  of  Wad.i,  above 
the  Grenfell  Falls,  379  or  even  only  36a  m.  (  -  i,J45'l 
or  less).  If  the  Belgians  and  Grenfell  are  wr.mi;  and 
the  French  right,  then  all  the  otficial  altitudes  of  the 
Congo  liasin  will  have  lo  be  lowered  consnlerably. 
if,  on  the  other  hand,  the  error  in  the  ccniputation 
of  Zongo  and  Wada  lies  with  the  l-'roncti,  all  their 
other  computations  North  of  the  Mub^mgi  and  in 
the  Shnri  Uasin,  may  also  be  too  low  by  soma  seventy 


odd  n 


H.  H.J. 


